Experimental demonstration of tunable directional excitation of surface plasmon polaritons with a subwavelength metallic double slit

Xiaowei Li*, Qiaofeng Tan, Benfeng Bai, Guofan Jin

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

75 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We demonstrate experimentally the directional excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on a metal film by a subwavelength double slit under backside illumination, based on the interference of SPPs generated by the two slits. By varying the incident angle, the SPPs can be tunably directed into two opposite propagating directions with a predetermined splitting ratio. Under certain incident angle, unidirectional SPP excitation can be achieved. This compact directional SPP coupler is potentially useful for many on-chip applications. As an example, we show the integration of the double-slit couplers with SPP Bragg mirrors, which can effectively realize selective coupling of SPPs into different ports in an integrated plasmonic chip.

Original languageEnglish
Article number251109
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume98
Issue number25
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Jun 2011
Externally publishedYes

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