A design of compact plasmonic lens consisting of high index dielectric gratings and metal nano-film

Abstract

In this paper, a hybrid ultra-thin planar subwavelength focusing structure consisting of a high refractive index dielectric grating and a nano metal film was designed. The thickness of this structure is only 200 nm. Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) were excited from the nano metal film, propagated along the metal-air interface, and were then converted into a radiation field by the dielectric grating, forming a focused spot in free space. By adjusting the grating position and width parameters, the shape of the focused optical field could be controlled. The simulation results showed that, under 532 nm light irradiation, the lens could produce a 270 nm (full width at half-maximum, FWHM) spot size at a focal length of 2.46λ. Moreover, under the illumination of 633 nm and 780 nm light, the designed lenses were found to produce focal spot sizes of 304 nm (0.48λ) and 364 nm (0.47λ), respectively, which were smaller than the diffraction limit. The simplicity of this plasmonic lens design, coupled with its reduced thickness and minimal absorption loss, offered significant advantages in terms of cost-effectiveness and ease of fabrication.