Abstract-Asymmetric optical transmission based on unidirectional excitation of surface plasmon polaritons in gradient metasurface

Yonghong Ling, Lirong Huang, Wei Hong, Tongjun Liu, Yali Sun, Jing Luan, and Gang Yuan

https://www.osapublishing.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-25-12-13648

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.

© 2017 Optical Society of America