Abstract
We introduce a class of partially coherent surface plasmon polariton (SPP) fields carrying optical vortices, generated through a judicious superposition of planar SPPs with a prescribed initial phase distribution and arbitrary correlations at a metal-air interface. We explore the global degree of coherence, energy densities, energy flows, orbital and spin angular momenta, and the polarization states of such partially coherent SPP vortex (SPPV) fields in terms of their coherent mode representation. The salient physical characteristics of these SPPV fields can be widely tuned by controlling the constituent SPP correlations, tailoring such SPPV fields to desired applications in statistical nanoplasmonics.
- Received 11 April 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.100.053833
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