
- Chinese Optics Letters
- Vol. 21, Issue 3, 033601 (2023)
Abstract
1. Introduction
The cylindrical vector (CV) beam has the inhomogeneous polarization state and doughnut-like intensity distribution[1–4], promising a variety of interesting applications, including laser processing[5], superresolution imaging[6,7], phase contrast microscopy[8], and entanglement of the orbital angular momentum (OAM) state[9]. Generating CV beams on photonic chips is attractive. Compared with the generation techniques of CV beam in free-space optical systems, which requires several separate diffractive optics elements and their careful alignments, the on-chip CV beam generator is more compact, stable, and potentially large-scale manufacturable. Chip-integrated CV beam generators have been demonstrated based on microring resonators, grating arrays, and plasmonic nano-antenna arrays[10–12]. On-chip quantum computation with the CV beams processing OAM qudit states was proposed, which also has the ability of qudit sorters[11]. More recently, the CV beam has been utilized to excite the optical radiationless anapole hidden in a resonant state of a silicon nanoparticle[13].
The planar photonic crystal (PPC), as one of the desirable photonic integration architectures, enables the control of optical propagation and light–matter interaction in the wavelength-scale[14-16]. With their controllable photonic band structures, PPCs allow more reliable manipulations of light phases and polarization states via its Bloch modes, band-edge modes, and defect modes[17], which therefore provide a promising platform to develop CV beam generators. For instance, Noda et al. reported CV beam lasers relying on the bound states at the band edge of PPCs[18]. In our previous work, by removing or shaping the unit cells in a PPC to form the PPC cavities, azimuthally or radially polarized CV beams with different topological charges were realized[19,20]. However, due to the few numbers of Bloch or cavity modes, only typical CV beams with radial and azimuthal polarizations can be obtained[21]. It is still a challenge to arbitrarily manipulate the polarization state of CV beams in the PPC.
In this work, we propose an approach to generating CV beams with tunable polarization and intensity distribution, by integrating six plasmonic split ring resonators (SRRs) on a PPC cavity with multiple defects. By controlling the opening angles of the SRRs, the CV beams with varying polarization states and intensities are demonstrated. Owing to the coupling between the resonance modes in the SRRs and PPC cavity, the collection efficiency of the CV beam is significantly improved compared to the bare PPC cavity. The tailorable polarizations and high collection efficiency of the generated CV beam could certify the SRR-PPC cavity as a promising on-chip CV beam generator.
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2. Generation of CV Beams in a PPC Cavity
To obtain a perfect CV beam, we construct a symmetric structure to form a PPC cavity based on six D-type cavities in the silicon PPC slab. As shown in Fig. 1(a), the defects in PPC slab are introduced by cutting of six adjacent air holes in the PPC center. Here, the PPC slab has a thickness of
Figure 1.(a) Schematic of the silicon PPC cavity with six cutting air holes for generating the CV beam. (b) Intensity distribution of the cavity mode. The upper right inset depicts the polarization directions of the field, and the bottom right hexagon depicts the Brillouin zone of the PPC slab. (c) Far-field intensity distribution of the generated CV beam; the white arrows denote the polarization directions. (d), (e) Phase diagrams of right-handed and left-handed circular polarization components of the CV beam.
To verify the generated CV beam, we numerically calculated the far-field radiation patterns of the resonance mode using the Sommerfeld diffraction integral[18],
3. Manipulating Far Field of PPC Cavity Mode by the Integrated SRR
In our previous work, we demonstrated that the integration of a plasmonic SRR on a PPC cavity could modify their resonance modes strongly, including the resonance line shapes and mode distributions. It could be attributed to the effective near-field coupling between the resonance modes in the two nanoresonators. Here, we would illustrate the SRR integrated on the PPC cavity could also be employed to modify the far-field radiation of the resonance mode in the PPC cavity, which could provide a strategy to control the polarization of the generated CV beam. As shown in Fig. 2(a), a gold (Au) SRR is integrated on a D-type PPC cavity to form a hybrid cavity[20]. The gap opening direction of the SRR has an orientation angle of
Figure 2.(a) Schematic of the hybrid cavity with an Au SRR covered on a D-type PPC cavity. The silicon PPC slab (refractive index n = 3.37) has a thickness of t = 220 nm and lattice constant of a = 370 nm, the diameter of the air-holes is D = 0.34a, and the cutting air holes have a width of D′ = 0.8D. Geometrical parameters of the SRR: arm length L1 = 130 nm and L2 = 140 nm; arm width w = 27.5 nm; thickness d = 35 nm; gap distance between two arms gx = 75 nm; gap depth gy = 90 nm. The black dash denotes the cutting direction of the PPC cavity. (b) Surface charge distribution of the SRR as it couples with the PPC cavity. The bottom is the calculated near field of the PPC cavity (at z = 100 nm above the PPC slab), where gray arrows indicate the polarization directions. (c)–(g) Far-field intensity distributions of the hybrid SRR-PPC cavity (at z = 5 µm above the SRR) with the SRR opening along different directions, where white arrows represent the polarization directions. The upper right inset depicts the schematic of the SRR with different orientation angles, respectively.
Figures 2(c)–2(g) show the calculated far-field intensity profiles of the SRR-PPC cavity mode as the SRR is rotated in-plane relative to the center of the PPC cavity, i.e., the angle
Note that the far-field scattering intensities from the hybrid cavity change as well when the SRR is rotated in different directions. It could be attributed to the angle dependence of the coupling efficiency between the SRR mode and PPC cavity mode. In general, the couple efficiency
Figure 3.Calculated coupling efficiency and far-field scattering intensity as a function of the orientation angle φ.
4. Controlling the Polarization of CV Beams
The nano-antenna effect of the SRR over the far field of the PPC cavity could be further employed to control the CV beam generated from the PPC cavity shown in Fig. 1, which has six defects of cutting air holes. As illustrated in Fig. 4(a), six SRRs are symmetrically integrated on top of the six defects of the PPC cavity to form a hybrid cavity. All of the six SRRs have the same orientation angle with respect to the radial direction of the PPC cavity, which would be rotated by an angle of
PPC without SRRs | 1089 | 0.721 | 1512.5 |
0° | 86 | 0.047 | 1829.8 |
30° | 140.9 | 0.061 | 2309.8 |
60° | 199.2 | 0.061 | 3265.6 |
90° | 235 | 0.055 | 4272.7 |
Table 1. Calculated
Figure 4.(a) Schematic of the SRR-PPC hybrid cavity for generating CV beams with tailorable polarization; (b) calculated emission spectra of CV mode from the SRR-PPC cavity with the orientation angle φ varying from 0° to 90°; the dashed line denotes the resonance wavelength of the CV mode in the PPC cavity without SRR, whose emission spectrum is shown in the inset. (c)–(f) Calculated far-field intensity distributions (at z = 5 µm above the SRR) of the CV beams. The arrows denote the polarization directions.
The difference of the far-field intensity profiles obtained from the SRR-PPC cavity with different SRR gap directions also implies a change of the collection efficiency for the CV beams. To characterize the relationship between the collection efficiency and orientation angle of the SRRs, we calculate the far-field angular distributions of the cavity mode at different
Figure 5.(a)–(c) Far-field angular distributions of the SRR-PPC cavity mode for φ = 0°, 90°, and 180°, respectively; (d) calculated collection efficiency as a function of φ; blue dashed line marks the value of collection efficiency of the PPC cavity without SRRs; inset shows the far-field angular distribution of the CV mode in the PPC cavity without SRRs.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, we have demonstrated the generation of CV beams with tailored polarization from a PPC cavity by integrating plasmonic SRRs. The PPC cavity, with six cutting air holes, forms radially symmetric structure defects and supports resonance mode with azimuthal polarization. By aligning six SRRs on the six defects of the PPC cavity, the azimuthally polarized CV beam is transformed into the radially polarized CV beam. Compared with the CV beam generated from the pure PPC cavity, the collection efficiency of the CV beam generated from the SRR-PPC cavity is significantly improved, which is favorable for a CV beam generated from the on-chip SRR-PPC cavity in free-space applications, such as optical communications, imaging, and nonlinear optics[29–31].
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