Modern optical technologies require the miniaturization and planarization of the optical devices that leads to an urgent need for efficient control of localized light. In this aspect, surface electromagnetic waves on two-dimensional structures and materials attract a lot of attention, and can potentially become the main information carriers in planar data processing optical systems. In this work, for the first time, we investigate theoretically, numerically and experimentally the properties of surface waves at the self-complementary metasurfaces obeying Babinet’s duality principle.
The main features demonstrated in this manuscript are: (1) All-frequency hyperbolicity of the self-complementary metasurface. This feature is in sharp contrast to the artificial resonant two-dimensional hyperbolic structures where the hyperbolic regime is defined by the spectral width between the resonances. (2) Extremely canalized propagation of surface waves that can be switched between orthogonal directions by small frequency detuning. First, we demonstrate the plasmon canalization with a record minimum divergence. Second, we show the routing of canalized surface wave. (3) The polarization degeneracy of the surface waves supported by a self-complementary metasurface. The spectrum of any isotropic medium is always double-degenerate with respect to polarization, but for surface waves the polarization degeneracy is not fulfilled. In this work, we explicitly demonstrate the polarization degeneracy of TE- and TM-polarized surface waves paving a way to a number of applications from planar polarizer of surface waves to polarization demultiplexer.
The results obtained open new opportunities for the planar optical and photonic devices, optical data transfer and processing systems, and antennas applications.
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