Plasmonic grating for circularly-polarized out-coupling of waveguide-enhanced spontaneous emission

Abstract

Plasmonic metasurfaces form a convenient platform for light manipulation at the nanoscale due to their specific localized surface plasmons. Nevertheless, despite the high degree of light localization in metals, their intrinsic Joule losses are often considered prevention from applications in high-quality dielectric structures. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that in some cases, the capabilities of plasmonic particles for light manipulation prevail over the negative impact of absorption. We show the lattice of plasmonic nanoparticles onto a dielectric waveguide that efficiently couples the light of both circular polarizations to guided modes propagating in opposite directions. We demonstrate 80% degree of circular polarization for the out-coupled emission of GaAs-waveguide-embedded quantum dots. The results allow us to consider the lattice as a circular-polarization-controlled grating coupler operating at normal incidence and make this structure prospective for further implementation as an efficient coupling interface for various integrated devices.