"Rectifying" reflection from a magnetic photonic crystal

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel magnetic photonic crystal mirror that exhibits rectifying reflection by coupling to magnetic surface plasmon states, enabling one-way waveguides and beam manipulation at subwavelength scales.

Contribution

It introduces a new type of mirror based on magnetic surface plasmons that achieves unidirectional reflection and wave control at deep subwavelength scales.

Findings

Half of the image disappears at certain frequencies due to coupling to magnetic surface plasmons.

The system enables robust one-way waveguides, beam benders, and splitters.

Applications work effectively even at deep subwavelength scales.

Abstract

When an oscillating line source is placed in front of a special mirror consisting of an array of flat uniformly spaced ferrite rods, half of the image disappeared at some frequency. We believe that this comes from the coupling to photonic states of the magnetic surface plasmon band. These states exhibit giant circulations that only go in one direction due to time reversal symmetry breaking. Possible applications of this "rectifying" reflection include a robust one-way waveguide, a 90 degree beam bender and a beam splitter, which are shown to work even in the deep subwavelength scale.