On-chip near-wavelength diffraction gratings for surface electromagnetic waves

摘要

In the present work, on-chip dielectric diffraction gratings for steering the propagation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) are theoretically, numerically and experimentally studied. The investigated plasmonic gratings consist of dielectric ridges located on the SPP propagation surface (on the metal surface). In contrast to Bragg gratings, at normal incidence the periodicity direction of the grating is perpendicular to the SPP propagation direction. The studied gratings are designed using a simple plane-wave grating model and rigorously simulated using the aperiodic Fourier modal method for numerical solution of Maxwell's equations. In particular, plasmonic grating-based beam splitter with subwavelength footprint in the propagation direction is presented. Along with the theoretical and numerical results, proof-of-concept experimental results are presented. The investigated grating-based plasmonic gratings were fabricated from resist on a silver film using electron beam lithography and characterized using the leakage radiation microscopy technique. The obtained experimental results are in good agreement with the performed numerical simulations. The proposed on-chip gratings may find application in the design of systems for optical information transmission and processing at the nanoscale.