Polarization effects in metallic films perforated with a bidimensional array of subwavelength rectangular holes

For several years, periodical arrays of subwavelength cylindrical holes in thin metallic layers have take a crucial importance in the context of the results report by Ebbesen et al, on particularly attractive optical transmission experiments. First, it has been underlined that the zeroth order transmission pattern does not depend of the polarization of the incident ligth. In the present paper, we show that it is not true in the case of rectangular holes, by contrast to the case of circular holes. In this context, we suggest a new kind of polarizer which present the advantages brought by the original Ebbesen devices. Assuming the recent technological interest for these kinds of metallic gratings, such a kind of polarizer could lead to new technological applications