Spin-controlled plasmonic accelerating surface beams based on the integration of Pancharatnam-Berry phase and dynamic phase

Abstract Controlling the propagation of light beams along curved paths enables not only fascinating phenomena but also important applications. Here, by simultaneously introducing Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) phase and dynamic phase, surface plasmon polaritons accelerating surface beams (SPPs ASBs) modulated by the spin states of excitation light are demonstrated. The phase distributions required to generated SPPs ASBs are obtained utilizing the optical caustics method. Then, the SPPs phase is decomposed into two parts: the PB phase and the dynamic phase, which can be separately realized by arranging the orientation angle and the position of subwavelength slits. This synthetic strategy is verified by the generation of SPPs ASBs with spin-controlled acceleration directions, positions and caustic trajectories. Flexible SPPs ALBs modulation suggests potential applications in on-chip communication and integrated optoelectronic systems.