Coherent control of spatial and angular Goos-Hänchen shifts in a metal-clad waveguide structure
Ren-Gang Wan, Muhammad Suhail Zubairy
A metal-clad waveguide backed by a coherent atomic medium is proposed to achieve tunable giant spatial and angular Goos-H\"anchen (GH) shifts. With a metal layer of appropriate thickness, a large GH shift can occur simultaneously for transverse-magnetic- and transverse-electric-polarized light beams when the waveguide modes are resonantly excited. The phase change and dip slope of the reflection coefficient around the resonance angle are closely related to the system's internal damping, which depends on the absorption of the medium. Then based on the quantum coherence effect, the spatial and angular shifts can be greatly enhanced by adjusting the parameters of the atomic system. The lateral displacement can also be switched from positive to negative or vice versa via coherent control of the absorption by the medium. Moreover, the dependence of the resonance angle of the guided mode on the refractive index makes the peak position of GH shifts tunable. The proposed scheme provides more flexibility for manipulating the spatial and the angular GH shifts, and it has potential applications in optical switches, beam steering, etc.
Physical Review A•Feb 25, 2020•20 citations