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

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3602322· OSTI ID:21518490
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  1. Department of Precision Instruments, State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China)

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.

OSTI ID:
21518490
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 25 Vol. 98; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English