Surface plasmons with phase singularities and their effects on matter

Andrews, D. L., Babiker, M., Lembessis, V. E. and Al-Awfi, S. (2010) Surface plasmons with phase singularities and their effects on matter. physica status solidi (RRL) - Rapid Research Letters, 4 (10). pp. 241-243. ISSN 1862-6254

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Abstract

We explain how a surface plasmon optical vortex can be created when a laser beam with a phase singularity such as Laguerre–Gaussian light is totally internally reflected at the planar surface of a dielectric on which a metallic thin film is deposited. The light field in the vacuum region is evanescent in that it decays with distance perpendicular to the film surface, but significantly, it retains the phase singularity of the original light beam and also the orbital angular momentum carried by that beam. We describe the essential features of such surface optical vortices and discuss how they can, in principle, be used to influence atoms localised in the vicinity of the surface.

Item Type: Article
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Chemistry
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Physical and Analytical Chemistry (former - to 2017)
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Chemistry of Light and Energy
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Photonics and Quantum Science
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 18 Jan 2016 17:00
Last Modified: 09 Feb 2023 13:41
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/56487
DOI: 10.1002/pssr.201004191

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