title: Electrically generated unidirectional surface plasmon source.
abstract: We experimentally demonstrated an electrically excited surface plasmon source, which was fulfilled in a silver coated light emitting diode (LED) with well-designed gratings. With a DC current supply, surface plasmon polariton (SPP) waves were generated directly from the illuminations of the LED via the grating coupler. By adjusting the grating to a tilted one, a unidirectional SPP beam was successfully attained with a high extinction ratio (ER~10) and an improved launching efficiency. Detailed analyses show that this electrically generated unidirectional SPP has a considerable long propagation distance (~14 μm), allowing for further manipulations in plasmonic integrations and sensors.
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, School of Physics, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: X G
authors.initials: XG
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: S N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Zhu