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Updated: Aug 6, 2025

Spectral and Angle-Resolved Magneto-Optical Characterization of Photonic Nanostructures
Published on: November 21, 2019
Directional Bloch surface wave coupling enabled by magnetic spin-momentum locking of light
Kaiwen Luo1, Zhijing Huang1,2, Xianpeng Lv1
1Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing and Communications, Department of Optoelectronic Engineering, Jinan University Guangzhou 510632 China thuihuilu@jnu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
We study the magnetic spin-locking of optical surface waves. Through an angular spectrum approach and numerical simulations, we predict that a spinning magnetic dipole develops a directional coupling of light to transverse electric (TE) polarized Bloch surface waves (BSWs). A high-index nanoparticle as a magnetic dipole and nano-coupler is placed on top of a one-dimensional photonic crystal to couple light into BSWs. Upon circularly polarized illumination, it mimics the spinning magnetic dipole. We find that the helicity of the light impinging on the nano-coupler controls the directionality of emerging BSWs. Furthermore, identical silicon strip waveguides are configured on the two sides of the nano-coupler to confine and guide the BSWs. We achieve a directional nano-routing of BSWs with circularly polarized illumination. Such a directional coupling phenomenon is proved to be solely mediated by the optical magnetic field. This offers opportunities for directional switching and polarization sorting by controlling optical flows in ultra-compact architectures and enables the investigation of the magnetic polarization properties of light.
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