Broadband nonreciprocal spoof plasmonic phase shifter based on transverse Faraday effects

Abstract

Spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs) have aroused widespread concern due to their strong ability in field confinement at low frequencies. For miniaturized integrated circuits, there is a pressing need for nonreciprocal spoof plasmonic platforms that provide diode functionalities. In this letter, we report the realization of nonreciprocal phase shifting in SSPPs using the transverse Faraday effect. A plasmonic coupled line is constructed by flipped stacking two corrugated metallic strips, in order to enhance the mode coupling between evanescent waves that carry opposite transverse spin angular momenta. With a transverse magnetized ferrite cladding, the SSPP mode is split into two circularly-polarized ones that show different propagation constants over a broad band. A nonreciprocal phase shifter compatible to standard microstrips is designed to validate the breaking of time-reversal symmetry in SSPPs. Microwave measurement demonstrates a differential phase shift up to 46.2°/cm from 12 GHz to 15 GHz. Owing to the advantages of strong field confinement and contactless ferrite integration, the proposed method enables an alternative pathway for nonreciprocal spoof interconnects.