Polarization-controlled surface plasmon holography

Abstract

© 2016 by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim The ability of generating arbitrary surface plasmon (SP) profiles in a controllable manner is of particular interest in designing plasmonic imaging, lithography and forcing devices. During the past decades, holography has gained enormous interest and achievements in free-space three-dimensional displays. Here, by applying a two-dimensional version of holography, we experimentally demonstrate a generic method to control the SP profiles. Through controlling the orientation angles of two separated slits under circular polarization incidence, the amplitude and phase of the excited SPs can be freely manipulated, which allows direct generation of the desired SP profiles. A series of controllable SP holography schemes are theoretically and experimentally demonstrated, where the holographic SP profiles with high imaging quality can be dynamically modulated by varying the circular polarization handedness or orientation angle of linear polarization. The universality and simplicity of the proposed design strategies would offer promising opportunities for practical plasmonic applications. (Figure presented.).