Beaming of Helical Light from Plasmonic Vortices via Adiabatically Tapered Nanotip.
We demonstrate the generation of far-field propagating optical beams with a desired orbital angular momentum by using a smooth optical-mode transformation between a plasmonic vortex and free-space Laguerre-Gaussian modes. This is obtained by means of an adiabatically tapered gold tip surrounded by a spiral slit. The proposed physical model, backed up by the numerical study, brings about an optimized structure that is fabricated by using a highly reproducible secondary electron lithography technique. Optical measurements of the structure excellently agree with the theoretically predicted far-field distributions. This architecture provides a unique platform for a localized excitation of plasmonic vortices followed by its beaming.
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , via Morego 30, I-16163 Genova, Italy.
Denis
D
Garoli
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , via Morego 30, I-16163 Genova, Italy.
Pierfrancesco
P
Zilio
Yuri
Y
Gorodetski
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , via Morego 30, I-16163 Genova, Italy.
Francesco
F
Tantussi
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia , via Morego 30, I-16163 Genova, Italy.
Francesco
F
De Angelis
Laguerre Gaussian beam; Plasmonic vortex; orbital angular momentum; singular optics; spin−orbit coupling