Near-Field and Far-Field Directional Conversion of Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons

A compact metallic meta-structure is proposed to realize directional conversion between spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs) and propagating waves at millimeter wave and THz frequencies. The structure is constructed by embedding two slits or multi-slits array into a subwavelength metallic reflection grating. When the back-side of the structure is illuminated by an oblique beam with a fixed incident angle, the propagating wave will be unidirectionally converted into SSPPs with a considerable efficiency. Both the simulations and experiments demonstrate that the excitation ratio of the SSPPs between the two possible propagating directions (left and right) reaches up to about 340. Furthermore, assisted by the structure, near-field SSPPs can be also converted into far-field narrow beams with particular directions. Through frequency sweeping, wide-angle beam scanning is verified by theory and experiments. The work paves a new way for SSPPs launching and also provides fresh ideas for super-resolution imaging in the longer wavelength range.