Plasmonic Bloch–Zener Oscillation and Beam Curling in Metal–Dielectric Waveguide Arrays

This paper investigates plasmonic Bloch-Zener oscillation and beam curling in metal-dielectric waveguide arrays (MDWAs) using numerical simulations and theoretical analyses. The beam generated by plasmonic Zener tunneling undergoes a plasmonic Bloch oscillation in the second band of MDWAs and becomes curled. Changing the width and the relative-permittivity gradient of the dielectric layers causes this curled beam to move backward, forward, or even unmoved. Increasing the width and the relative-permittivity gradient of the dielectric layers increases the rightward displacement and reduces the leftward displacement. The direction of motion of the curled beam is determined by the net longitudinal displacement.