Active Control of Multichannel Airy Surface Plasmon Polaritons in Fishbone Nanostructure for Nanoparticle Trapping

The multichannel Airy surface plasmon polariton (SPP), which has the potential for wider propagation ranges, increased excitation channels on a chip, optical tweezers, nanoparticle capture, energy routing, and so on, has been used in diverse applications in photonics and nanotechnology for years. However, previous studies primarily focused on the dynamic manipulation of Airy SPP beams in single-channel configurations; a path manipulation for multichannel Airy SPP remains unexplored to date. In this investigation, we design a composite fishbone nanostructure for the first time that supports the excitation and active manipulation of multichannel Airy SPP main lobes by changing the polarization direction and wavelength of the incident light. Through quantitative characterization using the extinction ratio, we found it exhibits excellent multichannel Airy SPP directional propagation. Moreover, with embedded oxide nanostructures in the gold film, it is found that the main lobe intensity can be effectively enhanced in the propagation path. Our results provide a higher degree of freedom for the application of optical tweezers, nanoparticle capture, and energy routing.