A study in geometry: Interferometric control of resonant coupling

This paper discusses the consequences of exploiting the phase degree-of-freedom in multi-pathway resonant coupling. As a test system, the simplest available structure, a plasmonic grating coupler, was chosen. Rigorous electromagnetic modeling was used to study how the geometry of a two component grating coupler, , controls the resonant plasmonic coupling. The coupling characteristics, in this case the amplitude and phase of the excited surface plasmon polariton (SPP), of each channel are determined by its corresponding amplitude and phase. And, as shown, adding a single second-order pathway, allows to completely turn off the plasmonic coupling.