Surface Plasmon Generation in a Subwavelength Slit in metal: a Palladium-Based H2 Leak Detection Sensor

We investigated the extraordinary transmission that occurs for subwavelength slits on metallic substrates: the transmission process is driven by several physical mechanisms, whose relative importance depends on the thickness of the metallic substrate and slit size. We show how a Palladium-based device is suitable for H2-leak- detection exploiting the enhanced transmission phenomenon.