Corrugated metal surface with pillars for terahertz surface plasmon polariton waveguide components

Yuehong, Xu; Yanfeng, Li; Tian, Chunxiu; Han, Jiaguang; Quan, Xu; Xueqian, Zhang; Xixiang, Zhang; Ying, Zhang; Weili, Zhang

Corrugated metal surface with pillars for terahertz surface plasmon polariton waveguide components

Files

1062302.pdf (1.05 MB)

Type

Conference Paper

Authors

Yuehong, Xu
Yanfeng, Li
Tian, Chunxiu
Han, Jiaguang
Quan, Xu
Xueqian, Zhang
Xixiang, Zhang
Ying, Zhang
Weili, Zhang

KAUST Department

Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division

Date

2018-01-12

Abstract

In the terahertz regime, due to perfect conductivity of most metals, it is hard to realize a strong confinement of Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) although a propagation loss could be sufficiently low. We experimentally demonstrated a structure with periodic pillars arranged on a thin metal surface that supports bound modes of spoof SPPs at terahertz (THz) frequencies. By using scanning near-field THz microscopy, the electric field distribution above the metal surface within a distance of 130 μm was mapped. The results proved that this structure could guide spoof SPPs propagating along subwavelength waveguides, and at the same time reduce field expansion into free space. Further, for the development of integrated optical circuits, several components including straight waveguide, S-bend, Y-splitter and directional couplers were designed and characterized by the same method. We believe that the waveguide components proposed here will pave a new way for the development of flexible, wideband and compact photonic circuits operating at THz frequencies.

Citation

Yuehong X, Yanfeng L, Chunxiu T, Jiaguang H, Quan X, et al. (2018) Corrugated metal surface with pillars for terahertz surface plasmon polariton waveguide components. 2017 International Conference on Optical Instruments and Technology: IRMMW-THz Technologies and Applications. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.2295257.