Bidirectional surface wave splitters excited by a

cylindrical wire
Yong Jin Zhou, Quan Jiang, and Tie Jun Cui*
State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, School of Information Science and Engineering,
Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China
*tjcui@seu.edu.cn

Abstract: Bidirectional surface wave splitters excited by a cylindrical wire

in the microwave frequency have been proposed and fabricated. Compared
to the bidirectional subwavelength-slit splitter, the novelty of the proposed
structure is the coupling mechanism from the cylindrical wire to the surface
gratings. By designing the grating structures with different depths and the
feeding wire, electromagnetic waves at the designed frequencies will be
confined and guided in the predetermined opposite directions. The finite
integral time-domain method is used to model the splitters. Experimental
results are presented in the microwave frequencies to verify the new
structure, which have very good agreements to the simulated results. Based
on the same coupling mechanism, a bidirectional surface wave splitter
excited by a cylindrical wire in the terahertz (THz) frequencies is further
been proposed and modeled. The simulation results demonstrate the validity
of the THz splitter.
2011 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (240.6680) Surface plasmons; (240.6690) Surface waves; (260.3090) Infrared, far.

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1. Introduction
Since the surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are not constrained by the optical diffraction
limit, it is hoped that they could enable the construction of compact optical components,
having applications in on-chip integration of optical circuits, surface or interface technology,
and data storage, etc [1,2]. While most SPP studies were focused on the visible and infrared
frequency ranges, an increasing attention has been paid to the spoof SPPs [3] in the terahertz
(THz) frequency in recent years on both planar [49] and cylindrically shaped [1016]
structures. An experiment in the microwave frequency has been conducted to verify such
spoof SPPs [17]. To achieve full potential applications, it is vital that SPPs could be
effectively excited and guided within subwavelength dimensions.
It is important to find the effective methods for ensuring that the generated SPPs only
travel in the desired directions. Recently, efficient unidirectional nanoslit couplers for surface
plasmon have been proposed to generate a unique propagation direction for SPPs [18]. A
bidirectional subwavelength frequency splitter operating in the THz domain was then
presented in theory based on a single tapered slit [19,20] to confine and guide the
electromagnetic (EM) waves at different frequencies in the predetermined opposite directions.
The splitting of surface EM waves has been investigated experimentally in the microwave
frequency [21] and at visible frequencies [22]. The commonly employed SPP-coupling
structures include prisms, apertures, and metallic gratings [6, 7]. For the prisms and gratings
structures, the incident light is a significant source of noise. The backside illumination of
subwavelength apertures [1825] in optically-thick metal films can eliminate this problem.
However, the use of free-space optics to guide and manipulate THz beams requires advanced
experience with optical techniques and the sample of interest must provide direct line-of-sight
access [26].
In this paper, we propose a novel method to excite the spoof SPPs by using a cylindrical
wire, generating a bidirectional frequency splitter, which can be used for several applications

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Received 28 Jan 2011; revised 19 Feb 2011; accepted 25 Feb 2011; published 4 Mar 2011

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such as the biosensing and optical components. Such a method could also be applied to design
the trapped rainbow structure [27, 28] in the microwave or THz frequencies. The coupling
mechanism and design approaches are presented. The finite integral time domain (FIT)
method is used to model the bidirectional splitter excited by the cylindrical wire. Experiments
are conducted in the microwave frequency, and the simulated and measured results have very
good agreements.
2. Design principles
The proposed frequency-splitter structure is illustrated in Fig. 1 (a), which consists of two
grooved plates with slot depth h , slot width w , periodicity p , and a coaxial feedline whose
inner conductor is extended to excite the spoof SPPs on the gratings. The length and depth of
the whole aluminum plate are L and H , respectively. The dispersion curves for a onedimensional (1D) groove array (the length L of the structure is infinitely long) can be
generated by using the following formula [29]

w
w 1
cot kh
(sin c 2n )2 = kh
p n = n h

(1)

where n= + 2 n p , n2 n2 = k 2 = 2 0 0 .
We define the depths of the right and left structures as hr and hl , the cutoff frequencies
for hr and hl as f r and f l , and the wave frequency as f , in which hr > hl and f r < f l . The
splitting mechanism is described as below. If f is close to f r , the wave could be strongly
confined on the right surface and should be weakly confined on the left surface. On the other
hand, if f > f r and is close to f l , the wave should be confined well by the left structure, but
cannot be coupled into the right. The coupling mechanism from the cylindrical wire to two
surface gratings is to match the field built up by the launching device to the field of the
surface wave as much as possible. The launching device can be considered as a field
transformer which converts the field of a waveguide into that of surface wave. The efficiency
will be greater if the field built up by the launching device has a good agreement to that of
surface wave. Based on the principle, a launching device was proposed to excite the surface
wave on the cylindrical conductors with high efficiency [30]. Recently, a radially polarized
surface wave was excited with high coupling efficiency through the use of a radially
symmetric photoconductive antenna which generates a largely radially polarized terahertz
beam [26]. For finite-sized slots the TEM mode is the principal mode if the slot width is much
less than the free-space wavelength [19, 31] and the TEM mode is the dominant mode in the
coaxial line. Since the field built up by the coaxial cable matches the field of the spoof SPPs
on the gratings, we believe that it is feasible to launch spoof SPPs on the gratings based on the
coaxial line depicted in Fig. 1 (a), where the inner conductor of the coaxial cable extends
above the surface to excite the desired wave on the surface gratings. A similar concept has
appeared in the design of surface-wave antenna in the microwave frequency [31]. The
bidirectional surface wave splitter excited by a cylindrical wire has been verified by using the
FIT method and experiments later.
The length L of the grating structure proposed in the paper is finite. To design the surface
gratings, the dispersive relation for the EM waves propagating on the surface of the grating
with finite length L is needed. However, Eq. (1) is derived based on an assumption that the
length L of the grating structure is infinitely large. Since there is no analytical formula for
finite-length metallic grating structures, we need to use numerical methods to analyze the
dispersive relation of the finite-length grating structure. The eigenmode solver of the CST
Microwave Studio (CST MWS) is used to do it. Only a unit cell of the grating structure is
needed in the simulation. The periodicity p and slot width w of the grating are 5 mm and
2 mm . The length L of the splitter is set to 10 mm and the thickness H of the metal is 40 mm .

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The gratings with groove depths 5 mm and 11 mm are calculated, respectively. Firstly, we
have calculated the dispersion curves of 1D groove array and compared those with the
analytical solutions generated from Eq. (1), as shown in Fig. 1 (b). The solid circles and the
solid curves correspond to the calculated results and the analytical results, respectively. The
agreements are perfect. Then the dispersion curves of the finite-length grating structure are
calculated, shown as dashed curves in Fig. 1(b). It can be seen that the dispersion curve of the
grating with L = 10mm is slightly lower than that of the 1D grating. At last, the eigenmode
frequencies of the grating with different grating lengths are calculated, when = p . The
length of the grating varies from 2 mm to 40 mm . The results for h = 5mm and h = 11mm are
shown in Fig. 1 (c) and (d), respectively. It can be seen that the eigenmode frequencies
increase as the length L of the grating becomes large and approaches the eigenmode
frequency for 1D grating. The discrepancy is larger for the smaller groove depth h . Since the
discrepancies are slight overall, it is acceptable and convenient to use the dispersion curves
obtained from Eq. (1) in the design of the gratings with the length L 10mm .

Fig. 1. (a) The sketch of the bidirectional surface wave splitter excited by a cylindrical wire;
(b) Dispersion curves calculated for w = 2mm and p = 5mm with groove depths

h = 5mm and h = 11mm . The solid curve and the solid circles correspond to the analytical
solutions from Eq. (1) and the calculated results with the eigenmode solver of CST MWS,
when the length L of the structure is infinite. The dashed curve shows the calculated results
when the length L of the structure is 10 mm . (c) and (d) provide the eigenmode frequencies
with different structure lengths, when
are h

= p

. The groove depths in (c) and (d)

= 5mm and h = 11mm , respectively.

3. Modeling and experimental verification

The time-domain solver of CST MWS which is based on he FIT method has been used to
model the bidirectional surface wave splitter excited by the cylindrical wire in the microwave
frequencies, and the simulation parameters are shown in Fig. 2 (a). The depths h of the
gratings are 5 mm on the left side, and 11 mm on the right side. The periodicity p and
width w of the gratings on both sides are 5 mm and 2 mm . The length L and the thickness
H of the splitter are 10 mm and 40 mm , respectively. The coaxial cable is SFT-50-3. The

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extended height h f of the inner conductor is 8 mm . As a comparison, a control structure

consisting of two smooth aluminum plates and a coaxial feedline shown in Fig. 2 (b) is also
analyzed. The electric fields on the xz-plane which is 2 mm away from the metal structure are
recorded and illustrated in Figs. 3 (a), (c) and (e).
The samples are fabricated for experiments. The experimental platform used here is
similar to the 2D mapping apparatus in Ref [32], as shown in Fig. 2 (c). The sample is placed
on the bottom plate of the experimental platform to achieve the automated scanning. The
bottom plate is attached to a pair of computer controlled linear stages, whose scanning range
is 200 mm by 200 mm with a resolution of 1 mm . The Vector Network Analyzer (VNA,
Agilent N5230C) provides the microwave source signal and the detection of return signal. A
custom Lab-View program coordinates the motion of stages. The transmitted-signal ( S 21 )
data are stored as complex values in matrices that can be plotted as intensity maps. The
coaxial cable (SFT-50-3) connected to VNA is used as the feeding source. Another coaxial
cable (SFT-50-1) is used as a detecting probe to sample the electric fields on the xz-plane
2 mm away from the metal structure. The probe is mounted onto the stationary upper plate to
eliminate the influence to the fields of the structure. The inner conductor of the probe is
extended 2 mm and bended 90 degrees in order to sample the z-component of the electric
fields. The measured results are demonstrated in Figs. 3 (b), (d) and (f).

Fig. 2. (a) The sketch of the bidirectional splitter consisting of two grooved aluminum plates.
The coaxial feedline is SFT-50-3 cable. The inner conductors of the cable are extended 8 mm .
(b) The control structure with two smooth aluminum plates on different sides of the cable. (c)
The photograph of the field mapping experiment setup. The coaxial detecting probe is mounted
onto the stationary upper plate which is lifted now. The lower plate is mounted to two
computer-controlled linear translation stages, enabling a scanning area of 20 cm by
20 cm with a resolution of 1 mm . The detecting probe is SFT-50-1 cable. The inner conductor
of the probe is extended 2 mm and bended 90 degrees in order to sample the z-component of
the electric fields.

The simulation and measurement results of the control structure at 10 GHz are shown in
Figs. 3 (a) and (b), respectively, in which both 2D distributions of the z-component electric
field on the xz-plane and 1D field distributions on a line which is 2 mm above the metal
surface along the z axis are presented. It can be seen that the EM waves cannot be confined on
the metal surface, and the measured and simulated results have good agreements. From Figs.
3 (c)-(f), we clearly observe that the EM waves at 5GHz and 10GHz are guided towards
different sides of the grating structure, and the simulated and measured field distributions
agree very well.

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Fig. 3. Results obtained from the FIT simulations and experiments. (a)-(f) 2D distributions of
the z-component electric fields on the xz-plane which is 2 mm away from the structure, and 1D
distributions of the z-component electric fields along the line (the white dashed line in (a))
which is 2 mm above the surface of the structure, respectively. The structure in (a) and (b)
consists of two smooth aluminum plates and the observed frequency is 10GHz. The structure in
(c)-(f) consists of two grooved aluminum plates. The width ( w ) and periodicity ( p ) of the
gratings are 2 mm and 5 mm , respectively. The depths ( h ) of the left-hand side and righthand side gratings are 5 mm and 11 mm . The observed frequency in (c) and (d) is 5GHz, and
the observed frequency in (e) and (f) is 10GHz. The results in (a), (c) and (e) are obtained from
FIT simulations, while the results in (b), (d) and (f) are obtained from experiments. The
thickness H and length L of the metal are 40 mm and 10 mm , respectively.

Considering that the design in the microwave domain could be scaled down to the THz
domain based on similar theoretical principles, we have simulated the bidirectional splitter for
the THz surface plasmons excited by a cylindrical wire. In the THz domain, the coaxial cable
is not suitable for a waveguide because of the high attenuation and dispersion. Instead, the
cylindrical wire waveguide proposed by Wang and Mittleman [10] could be used directly. In

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practice, a radially polarized surface wave on the cylindrical wire can be excited with high
coupling efficiency through the use of a radially symmetric photoconductive antenna [26]. In
the simulation, we put an outer shielding conductor at the bottom of the cylindrical wire. The
outer conductor and the wire construct a short coaxial cable to introduce the radially polarized
surface waves. The height, depth, and outer diameter of the outer conductor are 10 m, 5 m,
and 200 m, respectively. The diameter d of the cylindrical wire is set to 80 m. The extended
height h f of the wire above the grating surface is 80 m. The periodicity p and slot width w
of the gratings on both sides are 50 m and 20 m. The depths h of the gratings on the left
and right sides are 50 m and 110 m, respectively. The length L and the thickness H of the
splitter are 100 m and 400 m, and the simulation region is chosen as 3700m 300m
1480m. The whole structure is surrounded by perfectly matched layer absorbers. The field
distributions on the y=0 plane which passes the center of the cylindrical wire and the 1D
distributions of electric field intensity on the line 2 m above the surface grating are
demonstrated in Fig. 4. From Fig. 4(a), we observe that most of the EM waves at 0.5 THz are
guided towards the right-hand side gratings. From Fig. 4(b), it can be seen that nearly all EM
waves at 1 THz are guided towards the left-hand side gratings. The field distributions of the
bidirectional frequency splitter in the THz domain could be measured referring to the
experimental setup in Ref [26].

Fig. 4. The FIT simulation results of the bidirectional surface wave splitter in the THz
frequencies: The 2D field distributions on the

y = 0 plane and the optical intensity ( E )

distribution on the line 2 m above the surface of the structure. The observed frequencies are
0.5 THz in (a) and 1.0 THz in (b), respectively. The length L of the metal splitter is 100 m ,
and the outer diameter d of the metal wire and the shielding conductor on the bottom are
80 m and 200 m , respectively.

4. Conclusions
In conclusions, we propose a bidirectional surface wave splitter excited by a cylindrical wire
waveguide. The novelty of the proposed structure is the coupling mechanism from the
cylindrical wire to the surface gratings. The FIT simulations and experiments are conducted to
verify the splitter in the microwave frequency. We have shown that most EM waves at
different frequencies are guided towards different directions along the gratings structures
placed around the cylindrical wire. The measurement results have good agreements to the
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Received 28 Jan 2011; revised 19 Feb 2011; accepted 25 Feb 2011; published 4 Mar 2011

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simulation results. The proposed bidirectional surface wave splitter excited by a cylindrical
wire could be extended to the THz frequencies.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by a Major Project of the National Science Foundation of
China under Grant Nos. 60990320 and 60990324, in part by the 111 Project under Grant No.
111-2-05, and in part by the National Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos.
60871016, 60901011, and 60921063.

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Received 28 Jan 2011; revised 19 Feb 2011; accepted 25 Feb 2011; published 4 Mar 2011

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