Functional meta lenses for compound plasmonic vortex field generation and control

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel method for controlling plasmonic vortex fields by tailoring geometries, enabling large switching of angular momentum and complex topological field creation for advanced plasmonic applications.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach using functional meta lenses to precisely generate and manipulate high-order plasmonic vortices with arbitrary angular momentum control.

Findings

Controlled generation of high-order plasmonic vortices.

Ability to switch angular momentum with light polarization.

Creation of complex topological plasmonic fields.

Abstract

Surface plasmon polaritons carrying orbital angular momentum are of great fundamental and applied interest. However, common approaches for their generation are restricted to having a weak dependence on the properties of the plasmon-generating illumination, providing a limited degree of control over the amount of delivered orbital angular momentum. Here we experimentally show that by tailoring local and global geometries of vortex generators, a change in circular polarization handedness of light imposes arbitrary large switching in the delivered plasmonic angular momentum. Using time-resolved photoemission electron microscopy we demonstrate pristine control over the generation and rotation direction of high-order plasmonic vortices. We generalize our approach to create complex topological fields and exemplify it by studying and controlling a "bright vortex", exhibiting the breakdown of a high-order vortex into a mosaic of unity-order vortices while maintaining the overall angular momentum density. Our results provide tools for plasmonic manipulation and could be utilized in lab-on-a-chip devices.