Spin-orbit coupling controlled near-field propagation and focusing of Bloch surface wave

Opt Express. 2019 Sep 30;27(20):27536-27545. doi: 10.1364/OE.27.027536.

Abstract

Bloch surface wave (BSW) can be considered as the dielectric analogue of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) with less loss since it is sustained at the surface of a truncated dielectric multilayer. As dielectric materials show nearly no ohmic loss, BSW can propagates much farther compared to SPP, and thus is beneficial for planar optical devices. In this paper, we study the spin-orbital interaction between incident beam and BSW. We demonstrate that due to the spin-orbital coupling, the near-field properties of generated BSW can be controlled with a meta-antenna structure. The meta-antenna is composed of two gold nano-antennas oriented at 45° and 135° as a near-field coupler. By careful design of the meta-antenna, the generated BSW can be guided and focused depending on the chirality of the incident beam. Three examples of meta-antennas are demonstrated for chiral sensitive focusing, directional switching and asymmetric focusing. The proposed method can be applied as a design method for low-loss on-chip photonic devices.