Polarization effects in metallic films perforated with a bidimensional array of subwavelength rectangular holes

For several years, periodical arrays of subwavelength cylindrical holes in thin metallic layers have taken a crucial importance in the context of the results reported by Ebbesen et al. on particularly attractive optical transmission experiments. It had been underlined that the zeroth order transmission pattern does not depend on the polarization of the incident light at normal incidence. In the present paper, we show that it is not the case for rectangular holes, by contrast to the case of circular holes. In this context, we suggest a new kind of polarizer that present the advantages brought by the original Ebbesen devices. Assuming the recent technological interest for these kinds of metallic gratings, such a kind of polarizer could lead to new technological applications. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.