十字结构银纳米线的表面等离极化激元分束特性

金属纳米线波导可以将光局域在亚波长尺度内传播, 在纳米光子集成回路方面有着重要的作用. 本文应用有限元方法, 研究了十字结构银纳米线的表面等离极化激元分束特性. 结果表明, 不同模式的表面等离极化激元在十字结构三个分支的输出依赖于端面的几何结构参数. 此外, 研究还发现由于不同模式表面等离极化激元叠加, 在十字结构的分支上出现了周期性电场分布.     

Trapping of surface plasmon polaritons in a multiple-teeth-shaped waveguide at visible wavelengths

We numerically and theoretically demonstrate that a metal–insulator–metal (MIM) waveguide with multiple-teeth-shaped graded depths can strongly slow light as the propagation velocities of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are reduced over a large frequency bandwidth at visible wavelengths domain. Since the wavelength of the trough of transmission is dependent on the depth of the tooth-shaped dielectric in the MIM waveguide, the guided SPPs at different frequencies can be localized at different spatial positions of the multiple-teeth-shaped graded depths MIM waveguide, which can be proved by the scattering matrix method. The separation between trapped waves can be tuned by changing the grade of the tooth-shaped depths and the lifetime of SPPs in the waveguide may be long enough for some meaningful nano-photonic applications.     

Coupled THz Waveguide Utilizing Surface Plasmon Polaritons on Thin Dielectric Slab Sandwiched between Two Corrugated Metallic Claddings

We present a comprehensive experimental study of terahertz （THz） wave propagation utilizing surface plasmon polaritons （SPPs） on the interfaces of a thin dielectric core layer sandwiched between two corrugated metallic claddings. THz wave impinges on the structured surfaces at normal incidence. Long-lasting oscillation propagation features are observed in the temporal waveform after traveling through the periodic arrays. The enhanced THz transmission can be achieved due to the coupling between incident waves to SPPs at the bottom and top interfaces. The finite element method is used to simulate the field distribution and the transmission mode in the waveguide. The hybrid waveguide with low absorption has great potential applications in THz integrated devices.     

Broadband and high‐efficiency conversion from guided waves to spoof surface plasmon polaritons

The conversion from spatial propagating waves to surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) has been well studied, and shown to be very efficient by using gradient‐index metasurfaces. However, feeding energies into and extracting signals from functional plasmonic devices or circuits through transmission lines require the efficient conversion between SPPs and guided waves, which has not been reported, to the best of our knowledge. In this paper, a smooth bridge between the conventional coplanar waveguide (CPW) with 50 Ω impedance and plasmonic waveguide (e.g., an ultrathin corrugated metallic strip) has been proposed in the microwave frequency, which converts the guided waves to spoof SPPs with high efficiency in broadband. A matching transition has been proposed and designed, which is constructed by gradient corrugations and flaring ground, to match both the momentum and impedance of CPW and the plasmonic waveguide. Simulated and measured results on the transmission coefficients and near‐filed distributions show excellent transmission efficiency from CPW to a plasmonic waveguide to CPW in a wide frequency band. The high‐efficiency and broadband conversion between SPPs and guided waves opens up a new avenue for advanced conventional plasmonic integrated functional devices and circuits.     

Nanofocusing of terahertz wave on conical metal wire waveguides

The nanofocusing of the terahertz (THz) radiation energy is studied. By using a conical metal nanowire waveguide, we focus the energy of the terahertz surface plasmon polaritons (THz SPPs) to several nanometers’ scale. Another interesting property of the THz SPPs propagation on the waveguide is that the peak electric field at the waveguide tip enhances many times. What is more, both the phase velocity and the attenuation coefficient versus the wire radius are obtained. The terahertz energy nanofocusing opens the way to observe terahertz propagating and imaging on the nanoscale.     

Anomalous transmission of terahertz wave through one-dimensional lamellar metallic grating

The anomalous transmission through one-dimensional lamellar metallic gratings was investigated in terahertz (THz) regime. The extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) is identified to originate from two possible ways: coupling of incident light with waveguide resonances and coupling of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at the upper and lower interfaces of metal grating. The dual effects of SPPs have been clarified in this study: (i) the excitation of SPP modes at each individual interface results in the weakness of the THz wave transmission; and (ii) the coupling of SPP modes at two interfaces of metal grating is attributed to enhancement of THz wave transmission. The enhanced transmission is dominated by the coupling of incident light with transverse waveguide resonances. Numerical simulation based on finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) agrees well with experimental results.     

Adiabatic transfer of surface plasmons in non-Hermitian graphene waveguides

We investigate the energy transfer of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) based on adiabatic passage in a non-Hermitian waveguide composed of three coupled graphene sheets. The SPPs can completely transfer between two outer waveguides via the adiabatic dark mode as the waveguides are lossless and the coupling length is long enough. However, the loss of graphene can lead to breakdown of adiabatic transfer schemes. By utilizing the coupled mode theory, we propose three approaches to cancel the nonadiabatic coupling by adding certain gain or loss in respect waveguides. Moreover, the coupling length of waveguide is remarkably decreased. The study may find interesting application in optical switches on a deep-subwavelength scale.     

Plasmonic splitter based on the metal-insulator-metal waveguide with periodic grooves

In this paper, we have proposed a plasmonic splitter which is composed of a subwavelength slit and two different metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguides with periodic grooves. The slit is used to excite surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at certain wavelengths. By setting the SPPs resonance wavelengths of the slit as the Bragg wavelengths of MIM waveguides, the SPPs of different wavelengths are able to be confined and guided in the two different MIM waveguides. The numerical results of two-dimensional finite difference time domain (2D-FDTD) demonstrate that our proposed structure is capable of splitting light into two MIM waveguides.     

Spoof surface plasmon-based bandpass filter with extremely wide upper stopband

We investigate the guiding modes of spoof surface plasmon polaritons(SPPs) on a symmetric ultra-thin plasmonic structure. From the analysis, we deduce the operating frequency region of the single-mode propagation. Based on this property, a spoof SPPs lowpass filter is then constituted in the microwave frequency. By introducing a transmission zero at the lower frequency band using a pair of stepped-impedance stubs, a wide passband filter is further realized. The proposed filter is fed by a transducer composed of a microstrip line with a flaring ground. The simulated results show that the presented filter has an extremely wide upper stopband in addition to excellent passband filtering characteristics such as low loss, wide band, and high square ratio. A prototype passband filter is also fabricated to validate the predicted performances.The proposed spoof-SPPs filter is believed to be very promising for other surface waveguide components in microwave and terahertz bands.     

基于表面等等离波子的新型Y分支波导

新型高效的纳米光波导器件的研制纳米集成光学的核心技术之一。Y分支波导作为最基本的分光和光路连接元件是纳米光学器件设计与制备的基础。运用时域有限差分(FDTD)法,模拟计算了基于表面等等离波子(SPP)的纳米Y分支波导的传输特性。结果表明,该新型Y分支波导在光通信波段可以实现大角度的分光功能,且在180°分支情况下,传输效率仍高达92.8%以上。另外,该波导还具有导波性能良好、对分叉处间隙缺陷大小不敏感及制作容差较大和器件尺寸在纳米量级等特点。对该新型光波导器件的研究为未来纳米集成光学器件的研制和应用有一定的指导意义。     

Mode splitting and multiple-wavelength managements of surface plasmon polaritons in coupled cavities

Resonance cavity is a basic element in optics,which has wide applications in optical devices.Coupled cavities(CCs)designed in metal-insulator-metal(MIM)bus waveguide are investigated through the finite difference time domain method and coupled-mode theory.In the CCs,the resonant modes of the surface plasmon polaritons(SPPs)split with the thickness decreasing of the middle baffle.Through the coupled-mode theory analysis,it is found that the phase differences introduced in opposite and positive couplings between two cavities lead to mode splitting.The resonant wavelength of positive coupling mode can be tuned in a large range(about 644 nm)through adjusting the coupling strength,which is quite different from the classical adjustment of the optical path in a single cavity.Based on the resonances of the CCs in the MIM waveguide,more compact devices can be designed to manipulate SPPs propagation.A device is designed to realize flexible multiple-wavelength SPPs routing.The coupling in CC structures can be applied to the design of easy-integrated laser cavities,filters,multiple-wavelength management devices in SPPs circuits,nanosensors,etc.     

Broadband amplification of spoof surface plasmon polaritons at microwave frequencies

Efficient amplification of spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) is proposed at microwave frequencies by using a subwavelength‐scale amplifier. For this purpose, a special plasmonic waveguide composed of two ultrathin corrugated metallic strips on top and bottom surfaces of a dielectric substrate with mirror symmetry is presented, which is easy to integrate with the amplifier. It is shown that spoof SPPs are able to propagate on the plasmonic waveguide in broadband with low loss and strong subwavelength effect. By loading a low‐noise amplifier chip produced by the semiconductor technology, the first experiment is demonstrated to amplify spoof SPPs at microwave frequencies (from 6 to 20GHz) with high gain (around 20dB), which can be directly used as a SPP amplifier device. The features of strong field confinement, high efficiency, broadband operation, and significant amplification of the spoof SPPs may advance a big step towards other active SPP components and integrated circuits.

     

Nanoscale metal waveguide arrays as plasmon lenses

Propagation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) through a set of nanoscale metal waveguide arrays (MWGAs) is numerically simulated by using the finite-difference time-domain method. The results reveal that MWGAs show an interesting lens effect on SPPs: SPPs can be strongly focused or defocused by the MWGAs, which we attribute to anomalous coupling of SPPs in MWGAs. Our results imply interesting potential for MWGAs in, for example, nonlinear optics, optical imaging, and nanosensing.     

Coupling effect of surface plasmon polaritons in single-negative lamellar heterostructure

Propagation characteristics of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in the lamellar heterostructure, which is actually a SPP waveguide array, constructed by two kinds of single negative (SNG) material layers stacked alternatively are investigated. Based on the finite element method (FEM), the negative-refraction (NR) property is demonstrated when the electromagnetic wave penetrates through free space into such SNG lamellar structure. A clear view of the underlying physics of NR is presented qualitatively that is mainly related to the coupled SPPs. The strong coupling effect leads to the novel SPP dispersion curves and then the anomalous propagation characteristics.     

Frequency control of surface plasmons with oscillating metal-insulator-metal waveguides

A single frequency of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) will be converted to many discrete frequencies as they are transmitted through a metal-insulator-metal waveguide with its core width undergoing a harmonic oscillation. The process of the frequency conversion shares many key properties with the light diffraction in discrete optical systems. By employing the conception of optical diffraction management, we can control the discrete frequencies of SPPs such as the intensity and spectrum width by changing the initial phase of the waveguide oscillation. The study bridges the spatial discrete diffraction and frequency transition of SPP modes. Theoretical analysis based on the effective index method and coupled mode theory is provided in detail.     

Chiral surface plasmon polaritons on metallic nanowires

Chiral surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) can be generated by linearly polarized light incident at the end of a nanowire, exciting a coherent superposition of three specific nanowire waveguide modes. Images of chiral SPPs on individual nanowires obtained from quantum dot fluorescence excited by the SPP evanescent field reveal the chirality predicted in our theoretical model. The handedness and spatial extent of the helical periods of the chiral SPPs depend on the input polarization angle and nanowire diameter as well as the dielectric environment. Chirality is preserved in the free-space output wave, making a metallic nanowire a broad bandwidth subwavelength source of circular polarized photons.     

Optical switch effect of metal–dielectric–metal plasmonic waveguide coupled with stub structure

The transmission line theory (TLT) and the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method are applied to investigate the optical transmission characteristics of the metal–dielectric–metal (MDM) plasmonic waveguide coupled with a stub structure. The transmission rate of the FDTD simulation results demonstrates periodically variation from less than 1% to more than 92% as a function of the length of the stub, which fits well with the results of TLT. Furthermore, the transmission also performs a periodically switch distribution with the change of the refractive index of the stub from 1.0 to 2.0 gradually. Both methods are adopted for modulating the superposition phase of the interference between the reflected surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) wave from the end of the stub and the passing SPPs wave in the waveguide, which can be interpreted as the principle mechanism for the optical switch effect of the MDM waveguide with a stub structure.     

Wavelength demultiplexing structure based on arrayed plasmonic slot cavities

A compact wavelength demultiplexing structure based on arrayed metal-insulator-metal (MIM) slot cavities is proposed and demonstrated numerically. The structure consists of a bus waveguide perpendicularly coupled with a series of slot cavities, each of which captures SPPs at the resonance frequency from the bus waveguide and tunes the transmission wavelength by changing its geometrical parameters. A cavity theory model is used to design the operating wavelengths of the structure. Moreover, single band transmission of each channel and the adjustable transmission bandwidth can be obtained by altering the drop waveguide positions and the coupling distance. The proposed arrayed slot cavity-based structure could be utilized to develop ultracompact optical wavelength demultiplexing device for large-scale photonic integration.     

Quantum regime for dielectric Cherenkov radiation and graphene surface plasmons

In this article, we propose a quantum regime for Cherenkov free-electron laser (CFEL) and surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) excited in dielectric and multilayer graphene waveguides, respectively. This quantum regime is realized when the momentum spread induced in the interaction is smaller than the photon recoil. The discrete momentum exchange characterizing this interaction yields a significantly narrow single emission line. To determine the condition of the quantum regime, we derive an expression for the gain in the Cherenkov effect using a quantum mechanical treatment. It is assumed that the effective spread in momentum is due to the finite interaction length L (or the propagation length in the case of SPPs). For both cases, CFEL and SPPs, the effects of electron beam and waveguide parameters on the possibility of the quantum regime are studied. We conclude that the quantum regime can be basically verified at low electron beam energy (<40 keV) and at emission wavelengths in the near infrared range (<5 μm) when L is in the order of millimeters. In the case of SPPs, we also show that the feasibility to realize quantum SPPs is enhanced by increasing the chemical potential and number of graphene layers.