Hybrid spiral plasmonic lens: towards an efficient miniature circular polarization analyzer

A hybrid spiral plasmonic lens that consists of alternating spiral slot and spiral triangular sub-aperture array can differentiate circular polarization of different handedness and enable a miniature circular polarization analyzer design with high efficiency. The improved performance compared to pure spiral slot lens comes from the fact that the hybrid lens is capable of focusing both the radial and the azimuthal polarization components of a circular polarization, doubling the coupling efficiency. In this paper, the spin-dependent plasmonic focusing properties of a spatially arranged triangular sub-aperture array and a hybrid spiral plasmonic lens are demonstrated using a collection mode near field scanning optical microscope. The coupling efficiency could be further improved through optimizing the geometry of the hybrid lens. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America