Simulation of On-Chip Broadband Photon Spin Router Base on Nondiffracting Surface Plasmon Beam Launching

The development of a photonic device based on a non-diffracting surface plasmon polariton (SPP) beam can effectively improve the anti-interference ability. Furthermore, an easily adjustable on-chip routing device is highly desirable and extremely important in practical optical communication applications. However, no non-diffracting SPP-beam-based spin routing devices with high tunability in multiple degrees of freedom have been reported. In this study, we theoretically designed a simple micro-nano structure to realize a highly adjustable non-diffracting SPP-beam-based spin router using Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) simulation. The simulation results show that the structure enables spin-controlled nondiffracting SPP-beam directional launching. The launching direction of the nondiffracting SPP beam can be dynamically rotated counterclockwise or clockwise by changing the incident angle. Hence, the routing SPP beam can be coupled to different output waveguides to provide dynamic tunability. Moreover, this device shows good broadband response ability. This work may motivate the design and fabrication of future practical photon routing devices.

Automated summary

This study presents a highly adjustable non-diffracting SPP-beam-based spin router with the ability to dynamically rotate the launch direction and demonstrate good broadband response capability through theoretical design and simulation.