In this letter we show how the dispersion relation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) propagating along a perfectly conducting wire can be tailored by corrugating its surface with a periodic array of radial grooves. In this way, highly localized SPPs can be sustained in the terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Importantly, the propagation characteristics of these spoof SPPs can be controlled by the surface geometry, opening the way to important applications such as energy concentration on cylindrical wires and superfocusing using conical structures.
An electromagnetic surface wave carrying orbital angular momentum (AM) is called plasmonic vortex that also carries spin AM originating from evanescent field. In this study, spin and orbital AM of plasmonic vortex in a terahertz cylindrical corrugated waveguide (CCW) are analyzed. We report the extrinsic spin AM of the plasmonic vortex for the first time. The extrinsic spin AM is produced by the rotation of the polarization of the plasmonic vortex whose rotation axis is positioned at the vicinity of the CCW wall. The extrinsic spin AM depends on the intrinsic orbital AM and radius of CCW. The …
In this paper, we utilize coupled mode theory (CMT) to model the coupling of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) between tri-layered corrugated thin films (CTF) structure coupler in the terahertz region. Employing the stimulated raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) quantum control technique, we propose a novel directional coupler based on SPPs evolution in tri-layered CTF in some curved configuration. Our calculated results show that the SPPs can be completely transferred from the input to the output CTF waveguides, and even we consider SPPs propagation loss, the transfer rate is still above 70%. Th…
The surface plasmon-polaritons (SPPs) switch is the key element of the integrated devices in optical computation and terahertz (THz) communications. In this paper, we propose a novel design of THz SPPs switch based on quantum engineering. Due to the robustness of coherent quantum control technique, our switch is very robust against with perturbations of geometrical parameters and presents a good performance at on-state (and off-state) from 0.5 THz to 0.7 THz. The on-state and off-state of our device can be controlled by the external voltage. We believe this finding will be the great improvemen…
Interactions of few-cycle terahertz pulses with the induced optical polarization in a quantum-well microcavity reveal that the lower and higher exciton-polariton modes together with the optically forbidden 2p-exciton state form a unique Λ-type three-level system. Pronounced nonlinearities are observed via time-resolved strong-terahertz and weak-optical excitation spectroscopy and explained with a fully microscopic theory. The results show that the terahertz pulses strongly couple the exciton-polariton states to the 2p-exciton state while no resonant transition between the two polariton levels …
The construction of the unconditionally stable planar rank 2 scattering matrix for stratified systems is detailed from Fresnel equations. Several matrix decompositions and numerical calculations performed on the planar S matrix allow for the expedient characterization of purely absorbing, brewster, surface plasmon, and wave-guide modes. A figure of merit is presented from the decompositions of the scattering matrix constructed from the Chandezon method for corrugated surfaces. This figure of merit represents the hyper-area of the scattering matrix transform and allows for rapid distinguishabil…
Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) represent a fascinating accomplishment of quantum engineering and enable the direct generation of terahertz (THz) frequency radiation from an electrically-biased semiconductor heterostructure. Their large spectral bandwidth, high output powers and quantum-limited linewidths have facilitated the realization of THz pulses by active mode-locking and passive generation of optical frequency combs (FCs) through intracavity four-wave-mixing, albeit over a restricted operational regime. Here, we conceive an integrated architecture for the generation of high power (10 mW) …
We have designed and fabricated a new type of terahertz (THz) emitter that radiates THz waves along the surface-normal direction because of the lateral distributions of the transient electric dipoles. The excitation and measurements were performed using a conventional THz time-domain spectroscopy scheme with femtosecond optical pulses. The corrugated mirror patterns on the InAs layers made the radiation directional along the surface-normal direction, and the emission efficiency was controlled by adjustment of the pattern width.
The effect of Anderson localization on surface plasmon polariton propagation and outward leakage when scattered by a randomly corrugated section of the interface
Plasma frequency is the spectral boundary for low-loss propagation and evanescent decay of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) waves, which corresponds to a high cut-off phenomenon and is typically utilized for identifying SPPs. At terahertz (THz) frequencies, a metal line with periodic metallic grooves can mimic the conventional optical SPPs, which is referred to as designer SPPs. Theoretically, the plasma frequency of THz SPPs decreases as the groove depth increases. Here, by replacing the metallic grooves with graphene sheets, dynamically sweeping SPP plasma frequency is demonstrated for the fi…
Coherent phonon-polaritons have attracted a considerable amount of interest owing to their relevance to nonlinear optics and terahertz (THz)-wave emissions. Therefore, it is important to analyze the THz electric-fields of phonon-polaritons. However, in the majority of previous measurements, only a single component of the THz electric field was detected. In this paper, we demonstrate that pump-probe electro-optical imaging measurements using the Stokes parameters of probe polarization enable the phase-resolved selective detection of THz electric-field components that are associated with the pho…
A nearly omni-directional THz absorber for both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations is proposed. Through the excitation of magnetic polariton in a metal-dielectric layer, the incident light is perfectly absorbed in a thin thickness which is about 25 times smaller than the resonance wavelength. By simply stacking several such structural layers with different geometrical dimensions, the bandwidth of this strong absorption can be effectively enhanced due to the hybridization of magnetic polaritons in different layers.
Most recently, two remarkable papers [New J. Phys. 21, 113004 (2019); IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron 27, 1 (2020)] propose broadband complete transfer terahertz (THz) surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) waveguide coupler by applying coherent quantum control -- Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP). However, previous researches request three SPPs waveguides coupler. In this paper, we propose a new design of a broadband complete transfer THz SPPs coupler with an innovative structure of two waveguides by employing two state adiabatic following. In order to realize this design, we introduc…
One-dimensional (1D) subwavelength corrugated metal structures has been described to support spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Here we demonstrate that a modulated 1D subwavelength corrugated metal structure can convert spoof SPPs to propagating waves. The structure is fed at the center through a slit with a connected waveguide on the input side. The subwavelength corrugated metal structure on the output surface is regarded as metasurface and modulated periodically to realize the leaky-wave radiation at the broadside. The surface impedance of the corrugated metal structure is modulated …
A novel broadband technique to effectively launch plasmons along a single graphene layer at terahertz (THz) frequencies is proposed. To this end, the coupling of the electromagnetic wave from a readily available plasmonic waveguide established by a periodically corrugated metallic surface to the graphene sheet is proposed. As will be shown, this technique can significantly surmount the need for efficient excitation of plasmons in graphene. For this purpose, an analytical technique based on transmission line theory is employed to calculate the scattering parameters of the connection of the plas…
Depending on the relative rates of coupling and dissipation, a light-matter coupled system is either in the weak- or strong-coupling regime. Here, we present a unique system where the coupling rate continuously increases with an externally applied magnetic field while the dissipation rate remains constant, allowing us to monitor a weak-to-strong coupling transition as a function of magnetic field. We observed a Rabi splitting of a terahertz magnon mode in yttrium orthoferrite above a threshold magnetic field of ~14 T. Based on a microscopic theoretical model, we show that with increasing magne…
We propose a robust and broadband integrated terahertz (THz) coupler based on the in-plane surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) waveguides, conducted with the quantum coherent control -- Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP). Our coupler consists of two asymmetric specific curved corrugated metallic structures working as the input and output SPPs waveguides, and one straight corrugated metallic structure functioning as the middle SPPs waveguide. From the theoretical and simulated results, we demonstrate that the SPPs can be efficiently transfered from the input to the output waveguides. Our…
We show that surface-plasmon polaritons excited in negative permittivity metamaterials having shallow periodic surface corrugation profiles can be explored to push the absorption of single and continuous sheets of graphene up to 100%. In the relaxation regime, the position of the plasmonic resonances of the hybrid system is determined by the plasma frequency of the metamaterial, allowing the frequency range for enhanced absorption to be set without the need of engineering graphene.
The strong-coupling regime between an electronic transition and the photonic mode of a optical resonator manifests itself in the lifting of the degeneracy between the two modes and the creation of two polariton states with mixed optical and electronic character. This phenomenon has been studied in atoms, excitons in semiconductors and quantum electrodynamics circuits based on Josephson junctions. Recently, there is also strong interest to study similar effects using intersubband transitions in quantum wells in the terahertz, where the ultra strong coupling regime can be reached and new physica…
Spoof surface waves are demonstrated theoretically to propagate along periodic corrugated surfaces made of non-conductive lossless materials with positive permittivity. An analytic derivation of the Spoof surface wave dispersion relation is presented in the case of deeply subwavelength period of a corrugated structure using impedance boundary conditions at the interfaces. Thus obtained dispersion relation is verified numerically and limitations as well as physicality of impedance boundary conditions when modeling Spoof surface waves are discussed. Finally, suitable materials, potential experim…
The resonant acousto-optic effect is studied both analytically and numerically in the terahertz range where the transverse-optical (TO) phonons play the role of a mediator which strongly couples the ultrasound and light fields. A propagating acoustic wave interacts with the TO phonons via anharmonic channels and opens band gaps in the TO-phonon polariton energy dispersion that results in pronounced Bragg scattering and reflection of the incoming light. The separation in frequency of different Bragg replicas, which is at the heart of acousto-optics, allows us to study the resonant acousto-optic…
Strong coupling between light and matter occurs when the two interact strongly enough to form new hybrid modes called polaritons. Here we report on the strong coupling of both the electric and magnetic degrees of freedom to an ultrafast terahertz (THz) frequency electromagnetic wave. In our system, optical phonons in a slab of ferroelectric lithium niobate (LiNbO$_3$) are strongly coupled to a THz electric field to form phonon-polaritons, which are simultaneously strongly coupled to magnons in an adjacent slab of canted antiferromagnetic erbium orthoferrite (ErFeO$_3$) via the THz magnetic fie…
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are traditionally excited by plane waves within the Rayleigh range of a focused transverse magnetic (TM) Gaussian beam. Here, we investigate and confirm the coupling between SPPs and two-dimensional Gaussian and Bessel-Gauss wave packets, as well as one-dimensional light sheets and space-time wave packets. We encode the incoming wavefronts with spatially varying states of polarization then couple the respective TM components of radial and azimuthal vector beam profiles to confirm SPP polarization-correlation and spatial-mode selectivity. Our results do not req…
Electromagnetic field confinement is crucial for nanophotonic technologies, since it allows for enhancing light-matter interactions, thus enabling light manipulation in deep sub-wavelength scales. In the terahertz (THz) spectral range, radiation confinement is conventionally achieved with specially designed metallic structures - such as antennas or nanoslits - with large footprints due to the rather long wavelengths of THz radiation. In this context, phonon polaritons - light coupled to lattice vibrations - in van der Waals (vdW) crystals have emerged as a promising solution for controlling li…
We theoretically investigate the application of topological plasmon polaritons (TPPs) to temperature sensing for the first time. Based on an analogy of the topological edge states in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, TPPs are realized in a one-dimensional intrinsic indium antimonide (InSb) microsphere chain. The existence of TPPs is demonstrated by analyzing the topology of the photonic band structures and the eigenmode distribution. By exploiting the temperature dependence of the permittivity of InSb in the terahertz range, the resonance frequency of the TPPs can be largely tuned by the tempera…
We demonstrate thermally tunable superconductor hole array with active control over their resonant transmission induced by surface plasmon polaritons . The array was lithographically fabricated on high temperature YBCO superconductor and characterized by terahertz-time domain spectroscopy. We observe a clear transition from the virtual excitation of the surface plasmon mode to the real surface plasmon mode. The highly tunable superconducting plasmonic hole arrays may have promising applications in the design of low-loss, large dynamic range amplitude modulation, and surface plasmon based terah…
Measuring momentum-resolved dissipation of phonon-polaritons in LiNbO$_3$ with terahertz driving
Brigham Young University（杨百翰大学）；ETH Zurich（苏黎世联邦理工学院）；Sapienza University of Rome（罗马第一大学）；Université de Strasbourg（斯特拉斯堡大学）；Université Paris Cité（巴黎西岱大学）；Paul Scherrer Institut（保罗谢尔研究所）
We report on the strong coupling between inorganic quantum well excitons and surface plasmons. For that purpose a corrugated silver film was deposited on the top of a heterostructure consisting of GaAs/GaAlAs quantum wells. The formation of plasmon/heavy-hole exciton/light-hole exciton mixed states is demonstrated with reflectometry experiments. The interaction energies amount to 21 meV for the plasmon/light-hole exciton and 22 meV for the plasmon/heavy-hole exciton. Some particularities of the plasmon-exciton coupling were also discussed and qualitatively related to the plasmon polarization.
The excitation of localized or delocalized surface plasmon polaritons in nanostructured or extended graphene has attracted a steadily increasing attention due to their promising applications in sensors, switches, and filters. These single resonances may couple and intriguing spectral signatures can be achieved by exploiting the entailing hybridization. Whereas thus far only the coupling between localized or delocalized surface plasmon polaritons has been studied in graphene nanostructures, we consider here the interaction between a localized and a delocalized surface plasmon polariton. This in…
We suggest an indirect method of detection of photons with zero projection of spin mediated by emission of terahertz photons. This terahertz source is based on a system of microcavity exciton polaritons in the regime of polariton BEC formation when the cavity photons acquire an effective mass being localised in the cavity and therefore receive the third spin degree of freedom (corresponding to the longitudinal polarization with chirality l = 0). The optical transitions can occur between two polariton ground states based on the light-hole and heavy-hole excitons, respectively, accompanied by th…
The second harmonic generation is one of the most important applications of nonlinear effect, which has attracted great interests in nonlinear optics and microwave in the past decades. To the best of our knowledge, however, generating the second harmonics of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) has not been reported. Here, we propose to generate the second harmonics of spoof SPPs with high efficiency at microwave frequencies using subwavelength-scale nonlinear active device integrated on specially designed plasmonic waveguides, which are composed of two ultrathin corrugated metallic strips printe…
In modern integrated circuits and wireless communication systems/devices, three key features need to be solved simultaneously to reach higher performance and more compact size: signal integrity, interference suppression, and miniaturization. However, the above-mentioned requests are almost contradictory using the traditional techniques. To overcome this challenge, here we propose time-domain spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) as the carrier of signals. By designing a special plasmonic waveguide constructed by printing two narrow corrugated metallic strips on the top and bottom surfaces of…
Emerging technology based on artificial materials containing metallic structures has raised the prospect for unprecedented control of terahertz waves through components like filters, absorbers and polarizers. The functionality of these devices is static by the very nature of their metallic or polaritonic composition, although some degree of tunability can be achieved by incorporating electrically biased semiconductors. Here, we demonstrate a photonic structure by projecting the optical image of a metal mask onto a thin GaAs substrate using a femtosecond pulsed laser source. We show that the re…
The rigorous coupled wave approach (RCWA) was implemented to investigate optical absorption in a triple-p-i-n-junction amorphous-silicon solar cell with a 2D metallic periodically corrugated backreflector (PCBR). Both total and useful absorptances were computed against the free-space wavelength $λ_o$ for both s- and p-polarized polarization states. The useful absorptance in each of the three p-i-n junctions was also computed for normal as well as oblique incidence. Furthermore, two canonical boundary-value problems were solved for the prediction of guided-wave modes (GWMs): surface-plasmon-pol…
Vertical cavity surface emitting terahertz lasers can be realized in conventional semiconductor microcavities with embedded quantum wells in the strong coupling regime. The cavity is to be pumped optically at half the frequency of the 2p exciton state. Once a threshold population of 2p excitons is achieved, a stimulated terahertz transition populates the lower exciton-polariton branch, and the cavity starts emitting laser light both in the optical and terahertz ranges. The lasing threshold is sensitive to the statistics of photons of the pumping light.
We propose a graphene-on-grating nanostructure to enable second-order spatial differentiation computation in terahertz (THz) region. The differentiation operation is based on the interference between the direct reflected field and the leakage of two excited surface plasmon polaritons counter-propagating along the graphene sheet. With the spatial coupled-mode theory, we derive out that the requirement for the second-order spatial differentiation is the critical coupling condition. We numerically demonstrate such an analog computation with Gaussian beams. It shows that the spatial bandwidth of t…
Metasurfaces, with intrinsically planar nature and subwavelength thickness, provide us unconventional methodologies to not only mold the flow of propagating waves but also manipulate near-field waves. Plasmonic metasurfaces with topological transition for controlling surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) recently have been experimentally demonstrated, which, however, are limited to optical frequencies. In this work, we proposed and experimentally characterized an ultrathin metasurface with the topological transition for manipulating spoof SPPs at low frequency. We demonstrated rich interesting phe…
The effect of changing the temperature on the propagation of electromagnetic surface waves (ESWs), guided by the planar interface of a homogeneous isotropic temperature-sensitive material (namely, InSb) and a temperature-insensitive structurally chiral material (SCM) was numerically investigated in the terahertz frequency regime. As the temperature rises, InSb transforms from a dissipative dielectric material to a dissipative plasmonic material. Correspondingly, the ESWs transmute from Dyakonov-Tamm surface waves into surface-plasmon-polariton waves. The effects of the temperature change are c…
The canalization of terahertz surface plasmon polaritons using a modulated graphene monolayer is investigated for subwavelength imaging. An anisotropic surface conductivity formed by a set of parallel nanoribbons with alternating positive and negative imaginary conductivities is used to realize the canalization regime required for hyperlensing. The ribbons are narrow compared to the wavelength, and are created electronically by gating a graphene layer over a corrugated ground plane. Good quality canalization of surface plasmon polaritons is shown in the terahertz even in the presence of realis…
Using the Jacobi Elliptic Functions, an analytical solution is developed for the nonlinear amplitude equation of Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs) in a graphene-dielectric waveguide. It is shown that the field localization of SPPs coupled with TM polarized terahertz light can be enhanced if the nonlinearity is increased. On the side, a numerical solution based on Split Step Beam Propagation Method (SSBPM) suggests that spatial Modulation Instabilty (MI) can be dominant. Accordingly, larger nonlinearity leads to the generation of discrete plasmon solitons rather than the diffracted profile resu…
