Anisotropy-assisted non-scattering coherent absorption of surface plasmon-polaritons

TL;DR

This paper proposes a theoretical design for an anisotropy-assisted coherent surface plasmon absorber that perfectly captures energy without scattering, advancing integrated nanoplasmonic system development.

Contribution

It introduces a novel anisotropic design enabling non-scattering, coherent absorption of surface plasmon-polaritons, which is a significant advancement over previous scattering-based methods.

Findings

Achieves perfect energy harvesting of surface plasmons

Suppresses parasitic scattering into free space modes

Applicable to spatially non-uniform, finite-size structures

Abstract

The ability to control propagation of electromagnetic guided modes lies at the heart of integrated nanophotonics. Surface plasmon-polaritons are a class of guided modes which can be employed in integrated optical systems. Here, we present a theoretical design of a coherent surface plasmon absorber which can perfectly harvest energy of coherently incident surface plasmons without parasitic scattering into free space modes. Excitation of free space modes which usually accompanies scattering of a surface plasmon by an interface boundary is avoided due to specially tailored anisotropy of the absorber. The concept of coherent SPP absorber is analyzed numerically for spatially non-uniform and finite-size structures. We believe that our results will be important for the development of integrated nanoplasmonic systems.