Polarization controlled directional propagation of Bloch surface wave

Abstract

Bloch surface waves (BSWs) are recently developing alternative to surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Due to dramatically enhanced propagation distance and strong field confinement these surface states can be successfully used in on-chip all-optical integrated devices of increased complexity. In this work we propose a highly miniaturized grating based BSW coupler which is gathering launching and directional switching functionalities in a single element. This device allows to control with polarization the propagation direction of Bloch surface waves at subwavelength scale, thus impacting a large panel of domains such as optical circuitry, function design, quantum optics, etc.

Bloch Surface Wave Photonic Device Fabricated by Femtosecond Laser Polymerisation Technique

“…This pioneering work proved that BSW propagation may be easily managed by simple lithographic nanostructuring of the top layer of the photonic crystal. Since then, a wide spectrum of complex photonic devices has been demonstrated, including lenses [20], a prism [21], square and round gratings [22,23], a subwavelength focusing device [24], a polarisation-sensitive beam splitter [25], and a disk resonator [26]. However, the basic and the most important element of integrated photonics-waveguide-remains not fully studied.…”

Bloch Surface Waves Using Graphene Layers: An Approach toward In-Plane Photodetectors

“…To this end, several 2D optical components based on BSWs have been studied theoretically and experimentally. They include waveguides [16,17], lenses [5,18], disk resonators [19,20], BSW reflectors [21], Bessel-like beams [22][23][24][25], subwavelength focusers [26], phase-shifted Bragg gratings [27] and grating couplers [28,29]. Moreover, tunable planar optical components on BSW platforms have been demonstrated [30,31].…”

Optical Effects Induced by Bloch Surface Waves in One-Dimensional Photonic Crystals

“…One of the first attempts to control the propagation of the BSWs was the sinusoidal polymer grating at the surface of a photonic crystal that led to the formation of a photonic band gap and appearance of two opposite BSWs at the band gap edges [14,15]. In [16], the possibility of polarization control of BSW propagation is demonstrated using two-dimensional diffraction grating. Furthermore, the possibility of the realization of a BSW that does not have a diffraction divergence is shown [17].…”