All-optical and dynamic manipulation of surface plasmon polaritons by tailoring the polarization state of incident light

摘要： A hybridly polarized vector beam comprising linear, elliptical, and circular polarizations at the beam cross-section is investigated for the manipulation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Unlike the well-known radially- or azimuthally-polarized beam that only includes linear polarization, this hybridly polarized beam provides increased optical degrees of freedom, which assist in controlling the excitation, orientation, and distribution of the focused SPPs excited in a high-numerical-aperture microscopic configuration. Many fascinating SPP patterns can be easily obtained, such as sharp peaks, multi-foci, donuts, and dark polygons. Those novel properties might be of great value in applications such as plasmonic tweezers.