Abstract
The surface plasmon polariton is an emerging candidate for miniaturizing optoelectronic circuits. Recent demonstrations of polarization-dependent splitting using metasurfaces, including focal-spot shifting and unidirectional propagation, allow us to exploit the spin degree of freedom in plasmonics. However, further progress has been hampered by the inability to generate more complicated and independent surface plasmon profiles for two incident spins, which work coherently together for more flexible and tunable functionalities. Here by matching the geometric phases of the nano-slots on silver to specific superimpositions of the inward and outward surface plasmon profiles for the two spins, arbitrary spin-dependent orbitals can be generated in a slot-free region. Furthermore, motion pictures with a series of picture frames can be assembled and played by varying the linear polarization angle of incident light. This spin-enabled control of orbitals is potentially useful for tip-free near-field scanning microscopy, holographic data storage, tunable plasmonic tweezers, and integrated optical components.
Highlights
The surface plasmon polariton is an emerging candidate for miniaturizing optoelectronic circuits
A semiconductor laser at 1,064 nm is normally shined on the metasurface to generate a target surface plasmon polariton (SPP) profile on the air-metal interface
We have demonstrated arbitrary plasmonic spin-Hall effect about splitting of SPP orbitals and about generating different controllable shapes of SPP profiles
Summary
The surface plasmon polariton is an emerging candidate for miniaturizing optoelectronic circuits. Motion pictures with a series of picture frames can be assembled and played by varying the linear polarization angle of incident light This spin-enabled control of orbitals is potentially useful for tip-free near-field scanning microscopy, holographic data storage, tunable plasmonic tweezers, and integrated optical components. We can dynamically tune the phases and amplitudes of the designated SPP orbitals Such coherent control can further provide us the capability to assemble a series of individually designed ‘time’ frames as a motion picture being played back by rotating the linear polarization of the incident light. This is a form of spin-enabled coherent control[44,45,46] and provides a unique way in achieving tunable orbital motions in plasmonics. It can be used as tip-free near-field scanning optical microscopy[47], polarization-steering plasmonic tweezers[48], and coherent inputs of SPP devices (coherent logic gate, transistor, etc.)[49]
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