Open AccessAsymmetric optical transmission based on unidirectional excitation of surface plasmon polaritons in gradient metasurface
Author(s) -
Yonghong Ling,
Lirong Huang,
Wei Hong,
Tongjun Liu,
Yali Sun,
Jing Luan,
Gang Yuan
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.25.013648
Subject(s) - optics , surface plasmon polariton , transmittance , transmission (telecommunications) , surface plasmon , grating , extraordinary optical transmission , materials science , coupled mode theory , polariton , excitation , plasmon , optoelectronics , physics , refractive index , telecommunications , computer science , quantum mechanics
Asymmetric optical transmission is fundamental and highly desirable in information processing and full manipulation of lightwave. We here propose an asymmetric optical transmission device consisting of a gradient metasurface and a one-dimensional subwavelength grating. Owing to the unidirectional excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) by the gradient metasurface, and SPP-assisted extraordinary optical transmission, forward incident light has much higher transmission than the backward one. We combine temporal coupled mode theory and finite-difference time-domain simulations to verify its operation principle and study the performance. The results indicate that asymmetric transmission with high-contrast and large forward transmittance can be obtained around the 1.3 µm optical communication band.