Directing Nanoscale Optical Flows by Coupling Photon Spin to Plasmon Extrinsic Angular Momentum.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 29240432.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b02828.
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Abstract
As any physical particle or object, light undergoing a circular trajectory features a constant extrinsic angular momentum. Within strong curvatures, this angular momentum can match the spin momentum of a photon, thus providing the opportunity of a strong spin-orbit interaction. Using this effect, we demonstrate tunable symmetry breaking in the coupling of light into a curved nanoscale plasmonic waveguide. The helicity of the impinging optical wave controls the power distribution between the two counter-propagating subwavelength guided modes including unidirectional waveguiding. We found experimentally that up to 95% of the incoupled light can be selectively directed into one of the two propagation directions of a nanoscale waveguide. This approach offers new degrees of freedom in the manipulation of subdiffraction optical modes and thus appealing new prospects for the development of advanced, deeply subwavelength optical functionalities.