Polarization properties of ordered copper nanowire microarrays embedded in anodic alumina membrane

A theoretical study is presented for the polarization properties of ordered nanostructures consisting of copper nanowire microarrays embedded in anodic alumina membrane. The extinction ratio increases and the insertion loss sharply decreases with increasing wavelength. The optical losses result from absorption and Fresnel reflection for s polarization and Raleigh scattering for p polarization. The optical losses are found to be strongly dependent on the diameter and spacing of the nanowires for the different polarization directions. These results suggest that larger extinction ratios and smaller insertion losses can be obtained by properly selecting the diameter and spacing.