TY - JOUR
T1 - Polarization Selectivity of the Thin-Metal-Film Plasmon-Assisted Fiber-Optic Polarizer
AU - Wang, Xinyue
AU - Lin, Jintong
AU - Sun, Wen
AU - Tan, Zhongwei
AU - Liu, Rui
AU - Wang, Ziyu
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2020/7/15
Y1 - 2020/7/15
N2 - The interaction between light and metallic nanostructures leads to many impressive achievements and has a wide range of applications. The thin-metal-film plasmon-assisted fiber-optic polarizer is one of the essential applications. However, the polarization mechanism and the transmitted polarization of the plasmon-assisted polarizer have given rise to controversy over the past decade. Which of the polarizations is preferentially transmitted through the polarizer? The transverse electric polarization or the transverse magnetic polarization? Here, special emphasis is placed upon the polarization mechanism and the transmitted polarization of thin-metal-film plasmon-assisted fiber polarizers. We first investigate the polarization mechanism of the polarizers theoretically and numerically. Furthermore, a novel approach is proposed to demonstrate the transmitted polarization in the plasmon-assisted fiber polarizers experimentally. We demonstrate that the polarization mechanism is based on the polarization selective absorption of the metallic material, and the transverse electric polarization is the only transmitted polarization of the metallic plasmon-assisted polarizer. Moreover, the plasmon-assisted polarizer can offer a high polarization extinction ratio (33.1 dB) and a low insertion loss (1.1 dB) at room temperature and have excellent temperature stability in the range of -48 to 82 °C. Experimental results agree well with our theoretical and numerical analyses. The findings clarify the confusion about the polarization mechanism and the transmitted polarization of metallic plasmon-assisted fiber polarizers over the past decade, providing new ground for the exploration of polarization-sensitive optical systems, with good potential applications in the fields of optical sensors, plasmonic lasers, coherent optical communications, and biosensor systems.
AB - The interaction between light and metallic nanostructures leads to many impressive achievements and has a wide range of applications. The thin-metal-film plasmon-assisted fiber-optic polarizer is one of the essential applications. However, the polarization mechanism and the transmitted polarization of the plasmon-assisted polarizer have given rise to controversy over the past decade. Which of the polarizations is preferentially transmitted through the polarizer? The transverse electric polarization or the transverse magnetic polarization? Here, special emphasis is placed upon the polarization mechanism and the transmitted polarization of thin-metal-film plasmon-assisted fiber polarizers. We first investigate the polarization mechanism of the polarizers theoretically and numerically. Furthermore, a novel approach is proposed to demonstrate the transmitted polarization in the plasmon-assisted fiber polarizers experimentally. We demonstrate that the polarization mechanism is based on the polarization selective absorption of the metallic material, and the transverse electric polarization is the only transmitted polarization of the metallic plasmon-assisted polarizer. Moreover, the plasmon-assisted polarizer can offer a high polarization extinction ratio (33.1 dB) and a low insertion loss (1.1 dB) at room temperature and have excellent temperature stability in the range of -48 to 82 °C. Experimental results agree well with our theoretical and numerical analyses. The findings clarify the confusion about the polarization mechanism and the transmitted polarization of metallic plasmon-assisted fiber polarizers over the past decade, providing new ground for the exploration of polarization-sensitive optical systems, with good potential applications in the fields of optical sensors, plasmonic lasers, coherent optical communications, and biosensor systems.
KW - metal-dielectric interface
KW - metallic material
KW - optical polarizers
KW - plasmonic devices
KW - polarization of light
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088240786&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acsami.0c08274
DO - 10.1021/acsami.0c08274
M3 - Article
C2 - 32551488
AN - SCOPUS:85088240786
SN - 1944-8244
VL - 12
SP - 32189
EP - 32196
JO - ACS applied materials & interfaces
JF - ACS applied materials & interfaces
IS - 28
ER -