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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Topological extraordinary optical transmission

K. Baskourelos1, O. Tsilipakos2, T. Stefański3, S. F. Galata4, E. N. Economou2,5, M. Kafesaki2,6, and K. L. Tsakmakidis1,*

  • 1Section of Condensed Matter Physics, Department of Physics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimioupolis, GR-157 84 Athens, Greece
  • 2Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Heraklion, Crete GR-70013, Greece
  • 3Gdańsk University of Technology, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, ul. G. Narutowicza 11/12, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland
  • 4Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of West Attica, Egaleo, 12244, Greece
  • 5Department of Physics, University of Crete, GR-70013 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
  • 6Department of Materials Science and Technology, University of Crete, GR-70013 Heraklion, Crete, Greece

  • *To whom correspondence should be addressed: ktsakmakidis@phys.uoa.gr
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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L032011 – Published 25 July, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L032011

Abstract

Τhe incumbent technology for bringing light to the nanoscale, the near-field scanning optical microscope, has notoriously small throughput efficiencies of the order of 104 −105, or less. We report on a broadband, topological, unidirectionally guiding structure, not requiring adiabatic tapering and, in principle, enabling near-perfect (∼100%) optical transmission through an unstructured single arbitrarily subdiffraction slit at its end. Specifically, for a slit width of just λeff/72 (λ0/138) the attained normalized transmission coefficient reaches a value of 1.52, while for a unidirectional-only (nontopological) device the normalized transmission through a λeff/21 (∼λ0/107) slit reaches 1.14; both limited only by inherent material losses, and with zero reflection from the slit. The associated, under ideal (ultralow-loss) conditions, near-perfect optical extraordinary transmission has implications, among diverse areas in wave physics and engineering, for high-efficiency, maximum-throughput nanoscopes and heat-assisted magnetic recording devices.

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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L032011– Published 25 July, 2022
  • Received 25 May 2021
  • Accepted 8 June 2022
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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