Rapidly accelerating Mathieu and Weber surface plasmon beams

Ana Libster-Hershko, Itai Epstein, Ady Arie*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

60 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report the generation of two types of self-accelerating surface plasmon beams which are solutions of the nonparaxial Helmholtz equation in two dimensions. These beams preserve their shape while propagating along either elliptic (Mathieu beam) or parabolic (Weber beam) trajectories. We show that owing to the nonparaxial nature of the Weber beam, it maintains its shape over a much larger distance along the parabolic trajectory, with respect to the corresponding solution of the paraxial equation - the Airy beam. Dynamic control of the trajectory is realized by translating the position of the illuminating free-space beam. Finally, the ability of these beams to self-heal after blocking obstacles is demonstrated as well.

Original languageEnglish
Article number123902
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume113
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Sep 2014

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