Experimental demonstration of plasmonic Brewster angle extraordinary transmission through extreme subwavelength slit arrays in the microwave

We experimentally demonstrate the existence of a Brewster-like broadband extraordinary optical transmission band, in a very thick metal plate with an array of slits as narrow as λ/750 in the 8- to 40-GHz regime, by measuring the transmission from normal incidence to near grazing angles and mapping out the entire angular transmission spectrum. In the case of very narrow slits, an order of magnitude larger transmission is obtained at the Brewster angle when compared to the normal-incidence Fabry-Pérot resonance transmission peaks. Full-wave numerical simulations are in excellent agreement with the measurements, paving the way for the observation of this phenomenon in the optical regime. © 2012 American Physical Society.