Tunable directional beaming assisted by asymmetrical SPP excitation in a subwavelength metallic double slit

We present a design for tunable directional beaming through a subwavelength metallic double slit surrounded by dielectric surface-relief gratings.On-axis and off-axis beaming can be switched by controlling the incident angle to asymmetrically excite surface plasmon polaritons(SPPs) that are subsequently coupled out to propagating beams by the two gratings on the left and the right sides of the double slit.Furthermore,the division of optical power into two off-axis beaming directions can be tuned smoothly by varying the incident angle while keeping the total power almost unchanged.The mechanism of this effect is analyzed theoretically and verified using rigorous numerical simulations.