HIGHLY CONDUCTING WIRE GRATINGS IN THE RESONANCE REGION

We present a theoretical approach for calculating the fields diffracted by gratings made of highly conducting wires that have a rectangular shape. The fields between the wires are represented in terms of modal expansions that satisfy the approximated impedance boundary condition. Our results show that this procedure is particularly suited to dealing with gold gratings used in the infrared range, a spectral region where the assumption of a perfect conductor does not hold, and where the rigorous modal method assuming penetrable wires exhibits numerical instabilities linked with the high conductivity of gold. Numerical results are presented, and the theory is used to determine wire parameters by fitting theoretical and experimental data.