Compact all-fiber plasmonic Airy-like beam generator

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Nanotechnology
• Optics

Background:

• All-fiber devices offer miniaturization and integration advantages.
• Airy beams exhibit unique self-reconstruction and transverse acceleration properties.
• Surface plasmonic polaritons (SPPs) enable light manipulation at the nanoscale.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a compact all-fiber generator for plasmonic Airy-like beams.
• To investigate the excitation and decoupling of SPPs for beam generation.
• To analyze the properties and interference of the generated Airy-like beams.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a single slit and a 1D groove array on a fiber end facet using focused ion beam milling.
• Excitation of surface plasmonic polaritons (SPPs) via the single slit.
• Decoupling of SPPs into free-space Airy-like beams by the groove array.

Main Results:

• Successful generation of a single Airy-like beam with experimental results matching theoretical predictions.
• Observation of transverse acceleration and nondiffracting characteristics of the generated beams.
• Analysis of the interference patterns of double Airy-like beams.

Conclusions:

• The developed device is a compact and efficient all-fiber plasmonic Airy-like beam generator.
• The device leverages SPPs and tailored groove arrays for precise beam control.
• This technology holds potential for all-fiber optical trapping, beam shaping, and integrated photonic devices.