Abstract:

Spoof surface plasmons (SP) are SP-like waves that propagate along metal surfaces with deeply sub-wavelength corrugations and whose dispersive properties are determined primarily by the corrugation dimensions. Two parallel corrugated surfaces separated by a sub-wavelength dielectric gap create a ``spoof'' analog of the plasmonic metal-insulator-metal waveguides, dubbed a ``spoof-insulator-spoof'' (SIS) waveguide. Here we study the optical forces generated by the propagating ``bonding'' and ``anti-bonding'' waveguide modes of the SIS geometry and the role that surface structuring plays in determining the modal properties. By changing the dimensions of the grooves, strong attractive and repulsive optical forces between the surfaces can be generated at nearly any frequency. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America