Flexible wavefront manipulation of surface plasmon polaritons without mechanical motion components

We propose a form of flexible wavefront manipulation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) without any mechanical motion component. An incoming light pattern, the amplitude of which is modulated by a liquid crystal spatial light modulator, is used to illuminate a grating on an Au film acting as a light-SPP coupler. The SPPs launched from the grating have the same intensity distribution as the input light pattern. By changing the input image, continuously variable in-plane SPP focusing on the Au film is implemented. The experimental results agree well with numerical simulations. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3593005]Physics, AppliedSCI(E)EI4ARTICLE21null9