  The plasmon analog of the self-imaging Talbot effect is described and
theoretically analyzed. Rich plasmon carpets containing hot spots are shown to
be produced by a row of periodically-spaced surface features. A row of holes
drilled in a metal film and illuminated from the back side is discussed as a
realizable implementation of this concept. Self-images of the row are produced,
separated from the original one by distances up to several hundreds of
wavelengths in the examples under consideration. The size of the image focal
spots is close to half a wavelength and the spot positions can be controlled by
changing the incidence direction of external illumination, suggesting the
possibility of using this effect (and its extension to non-periodic surface
features) for far-field patterning and for long-distance plasmon-based
interconnects in plasmonic circuits, energy transfer, and related phenomena.
