Abstract

We demonstrate that surface plasmons on a nanoscale metallic array can be transformed into radiation waves via an exotic Smith–Purcell effect. Although the radiation frequency and direction satisfy the Smith–Purcell relation, it is coherent radiation with directions specified, which is essentially different from the ordinary Smith–Purcell radiation. Its radiation spectral density is an order of magnitude higher. By adjusting the material and structure of the array, the radiation frequency can be tuned from an infrared to ultraviolet region. Its remarkable advantages in intensity, coherence, tunability, and miniature size indicate new prospects in developing nanoscale light sources and related techniques.

© 2015 Optical Society of America

Tuning Smith–Purcell radiation by rotating a metallic nanodisk array

Fei Chen, Ren-Hao Fan, Jun-Xuan Chen, Yu Liu, Ben-Qi Hou, Ru-Wen Peng, and Mu Wang
Opt. Lett. 48(8) 2002-2005 (2023)

Surface plasmons manipulated Smith-Purcell radiation on Yagi-Uda nanoantenna arrays

Yung-Chiang Lan, Jia-Hong Chen, and Chih-Min Chen
Opt. Express 27(22) 32567-32577 (2019)

THz Smith–Purcell and grating transition radiation from metasurface: experiment and theory

D. Yu. Sergeeva, A. S. Aryshev, A. A. Tishchenko, K. E. Popov, N. Terunuma, and J. Urakawa
Opt. Lett. 46(3) 544-547 (2021)

Smith–Purcell radiation from helical grating to generate wideband vortex beams

Juan-Feng Zhu, Chao-Hai Du, Zi-Wen Zhang, Pun-Kun Liu, Liang Zhang, and Adrian W. Cross
Opt. Lett. 46(18) 4682-4685 (2021)

Efficient terahertz and infrared Smith–Purcell radiation from metal-slot metasurfaces

Yanan Song, Jiayuan Du, Ningxiao Jiang, Liu Liu, and Xinhua Hu
Opt. Lett. 43(16) 3858-3861 (2018)