Surface plasmon THz waves on gratings

Because of their long propagation length at a metal surface in the far infrared, surface plasmons make potentially feasible the design and realization of 2D integrated terahertz systems over a metallic substrate. The coupling of a terahertz beam to the surface plasmon wave is very efficiently achieved by diffraction gratings engraved at the metal surface. In this article, we present a review of some recent works we performed in view of characterizing this coupling phenomenon. The analysis of the experimental data supplied by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy allows us to point out the main parameters that govern this diffraction process and the propagation of a surface plasmon over a flat or corrugated metal surface. To cite this article: M. Nazarov et al., C. R. Physique 9 (2008).