We present a method for exciting surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) caused by a magnetic field component perpendicular to the direction of slit. The excitation mechanism is based on the spatially oscillating induced current along the edges of the slit under obliquely incident electromagnetic waves. Our finding distinguishes itself from previous mechanisms based on transverse electric fields and unveils the missing point of the SPP-excitation problem in a nanoslit. The use of a magnetic field for SPP excitation can be highly efficient and even comparable to that with an electric field, so that their composition can lead to selective unidirectional excitation.

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We present comprehensive case studies on trapping of light in plasmonic waveguides, including the metal-insulator-metal (MIM) and insulator-metal-insulator (IMI) waveguides. Due to the geometrical symmetry, the guided modes are classified into the anti-symmetric and symmetric modes. For the lossless case, where the relative electric permittivity of metal (epsilon(m)) and dielectric (epsilon(d)) are purely real, we define rho as rho = -epsilon(m)/epsilon(d). It is shown that trapping of light occurs in the following cases: the anti-symmetric mode in the MIM waveguide with 1 < rho < 1.28, the symmetric mode in the MIM waveguide with rho <<1, and the symmetric mode in the IMI waveguide with rho <1 . The physical interpretation reveals that these conditions are closely connected with the field distributions in the core and the cladding. Various mode properties such as the number of supported modes and the core width for the mode cut off are also presented.

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We derive a general form of Airy wave function which satisfies paraxial equation of diffraction. Based on this, we propose a new form of Airy beam, which is composed of two symmetrical Airy beams which accelerate mutually in the opposite directions. This 'dual' Airy beam shows several distinguishing features: it has a symmetric transverse intensity pattern and improved self-regeneration property. In addition, we can easily control the propagation direction. We also propose 'quad' Airy beam, which forms a rectangular shaped optical array of narrow beams that travel along a straight line. We can control its propagation direction without changing transverse intensity patterns. These kinds of superposed optical beams are expected to be useful for various applications with their unique properties.