Analysis of wavefront reconstruction in surface wave holography

Holography is a well-known technique that has a wide range of applications in information processing and data storage. Recently, a methodology named surface wave holography (SWH) that merges the concepts of conventional holography and nanophotonics was proposed to implement plasmonic wavefront shaping and manipulation. By advoiding the complicated inverse-problem solution and directly designing grooves on a metallic surface, this method has been exploited to realize the deliberate scattering and interference of surface waves in the Fresnel zone. Here we address the mathematical foundation of this methodology in order to place it on a solid physical ground. We present a detailed scalar-field analysis of the image recording and reconstruction processes involved in SWH. The theory shows that the discrete curves of holographic pattern on a metallic surface can indeed reconstruct the predesignated image, albeit with undesired slight aberration and distortion due to loss of some information.