Micrographs of Blocked Holes (IMAGE)

Princeton University, Engineering School

Micrographs of Blocked Holes

Caption

These electron microscope images show an experiment in which Princeton electrical engineer Stephen Chou showed that blocking a hole in a thin metal film could cause more light to pass through the hole than leaving the hole unblocked. The top image shows an array of holes with gold caps, each of which is 40 percent bigger than the hole on which it sits. The bottom image shows a cross-section view of one hole with the cap sitting on top. The hole covered with the cap surprisingly allows more light to be transmitted through the film than a hole without the cap, Chou's research team found.

Credit

Stephen Chou/Princeton University

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