Helicity dependent directional surface plasmon polariton excitation using a metasurface with interfacial phase discontinuity
Open accessAbstract
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) have been widely exploited in various scientific communities, ranging from physics, chemistry to biology, due to the strong confinement of light to the metal surface. For many applications, it is important that the free space photon can be coupled to SPPs in a controllable manner. In this Letter, we apply the concept of interfacial phase discontinuity for circularly polarizations on a metasurface to the design of a novel type of polarization-dependent SPP unidirectional excitation at normal incidence. Selective unidirectional excitation of SPPs along opposite directions is experimentally demonstrated at optical frequencies by simply switching the helicity of the incident light. This approach, in conjunction with dynamic polarization modulation techniques, opens gateway towards integrated plasmonic circuits with electrically reconfigurable functionalities. Researchers have now demonstrated a reconfigurable, unidirectional coupling scheme for excitation of collective oscillations of the electrons at a metal surface, the so-called surface plasmon-polaritons. Lingling Huang and co-workers achieved an efficient and controllable coupling of photons in free space to these surface states on a metal film — a task important for the future development of nanoscale optoelectronic circuitry — by employing a nanostructured thin metal film on a glass substrate. The nanostructured metal film features an array of rectangular nano-apertures arranged in a carefully designed orientation and pattern. Such a ‘plasmonic metasurface’ couples photons to surface plasmon-polaritons while depending crucially on the circular polarization state of the incident light. As a result, when circularly polarized light strikes the surface, the handedness of the light dictates the propagation direction of the resulting surface plasmon-polaritons.
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The extraordinary transverse spin of evanescent waves is associated with the fundamental quantum spin-Hall effect of light.
“This is a manifestation of the extraordinary transverse spin of evanescent waves 53,54 associated with the fundamental quantum spin-Hall effect of light 55 .”
From Spin–orbit interactions of light (2015) · cites this paper as [53]
The Materials and Methods and Results and Discussion passages describe helicity-dependent directional excitation of surface plasmon polaritons. They do not address the extraordinary transverse spin of evanescent waves or its association with the quantum spin-Hall effect of light; searches for those terms found no passage establishing the claimed relationship. Page numbers were not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.74)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredEvanescent waves carry extraordinary transverse spin AM, in sharp contrast to what we knew about the spin of photons.
“Namely, recently it was discovered that evanescent waves carry extraordinary transverse spin AM , which are in sharp contrast to what we knew about the spin of photons 53,54,59 .”
From Spin–orbit interactions of light (2015) · cites this paper as [53]
The Materials and Methods and Results and Discussion passages describe how incident-light helicity controls the direction of surface plasmon polariton excitation. A search for transverse spin angular momentum in evanescent waves and the claimed contrast with photon spin found no passage addressing either point in our copy; page numbers were not provided. (LLM, conf=0.75)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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- Authors
- Huang, L., Chen, X., Bai, B., Tan, Q., Jin, G., Zentgraf, T., & Zhang, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Birmingham (GB)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
- Paderborn University (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Zhang, Shuang
- Venue
- Light: Science & Applications
- Published
- 2013-03-29
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- e70-e70
- ISSN
- 2047-7538 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2074800816
- Cited by
- 558
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 40 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 39 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 56 · 2018: 64 · 2017: 50 · 2016: 64 · 2015: 57 · 2014: 38 · 2013: 15
- FWCI
- 32.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- www.springer.com/tdm (unspecified)
- Locations
- Light Science & Applications (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- Advantage West Midlands
- European Commission
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SPP-1391)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (61227014, 61161130005, 11004119)
- China Scholarship Council
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/J018473/1)
- European Regional Development Fund
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials › Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials › Gold and Silver Nanoparticles Synthesis and Applications
- Keywords
- surface plasmon polaritons, metasurfaces, unidirectional propagation, circular polarization, normal incidence, plasmonic metasurfaces, polarization-dependent coupling
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