Dipolar modeling and experimental demonstration of multi-beam plasmonic collimators

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Abstract
We designed a new class of plasmonic gratings that generate multiple free-space beams in arbitrary directions from a point source of surface waves, using a phenomenological model that accurately predicts their far-field, in amplitude, phase and polarization. We fabricated such gratings on the facets of semiconductor lasers. The plasmonic gratings proposed here are generally relevant to the interfacing of nanoscale optical components to free-space beams. The model introduced here can be used to design general two-dimensional plasmonic gratings. In recent years, plasmonics, the study of the coupling between electromagnetic fields and electronic oscillations at a metal-dielectric interface, has emerged as one of the most rapidly growing fields of optical physics [1]. Plasmonics has made it possible to move optics to the sub-wavelength scale, opening up a range of new opportunities in science and technology for communication, sensing and imaging [2, 3]. However, for this vision to bear fruit, new components are needed that can act as interconnects between the nanoscale volumes involved in plasmonics and free-space optical elements. Such components would enable the design of complex optical systems where signals, pumps or probes can be sent in and out of photonic waveguides, quantum dots or even single molecules.

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