Compact all-fiber plasmonic Airy-like beam generator.

A compact all-fiber plasmonic Airy-like beam generator is demonstrated. A single slit and a 1D groove array were fabricated by focused ion beam milling on the gold deposited end facet of a single-mode optical fiber. The single slit excites the surface plasmonic polaritons (SPPs), which are decoupled into free space by the groove array. The phase of decoupling SPPs is adjusted by the grooves position. Experimental generation of the single Airy-like beam has good consistency with theoretical predictions. The transverse acceleration and nondiffraction properties are observed. The interference of double Airy-like beams in the free space is also analyzed. The presented plasmonic Airy-like beam generator is of importance to realize all-fiber optical trapping, beam shaping, and fiber integrated devices.