Plasmonic polarization generator in well-routed beaming

Abstract

As one of the recent advances of optics and photonics, plasmonics has enabled unprecedented optical designs. Having a vectorial configuration of surface plasmon field, metallic nanostructures offer efficient solutions in polarization control with a very limited sample thickness. Many compact polarization devices have been realized using such metallic nanostructures. However, in most of these devices, the functions were usually simple and limited to a few polarization states. Here, we demonstrated a plasmonic polarization generator that can reconfigure an input polarization to all types of polarization states simultaneously. The plasmonic polarization generator is based on the interference of the in-plane (longitudinal) field of the surface plasmons that gives rise to versatile near-field polarization states on a metal surface, which have seldom been considered in previous studies. With a well-designed nanohole array, the in-plane field of SPPs with proper polarization states and phases can be selectively scattered out to the desired light beams. A manifestation of eight focusing beams with well-routed polarizations was experimentally demonstrated. Our design offers a new route to achieve the full control of optical polarizations and possibly advance the development in photonic information processing.