Surface plasmons manipulated Smith-Purcell radiation on Yagi-Uda nanoantenna arrays

An electron bunch (e-bunch) passing through an insulator-metal-insulator (IMI) substrate can excite surface plasmons (SPs) on the substrate. Recent studies demonstrate that Smith-Purcell radiation (SPR) from one-dimensional gratings on an IMI substrate can be manipulated and enhanced by e-bunch excited SPs. However, under this configuration, only the emission along the direction of electron moving can be controlled. To steer both the azimuthal and polar angles of the far-field emission pattern requires other mechanisms. In this work, the SP-manipulated SPR with a Yagi–Uda nanoantenna (YUNA) array on an IMI substrate for generation of light beams with designed far-field patterns is proposed and explored by computer simulations. Emission of SPR along and perpendicular to the direction of electron movement can be manipulated by designing grating period and YUNA structure, respectively. Dependence of the azimuthal and polar angles of emitted light beam on geometry parameters of feed and directors of YUNA are elucidated. Furthermore, emission of multiple beams containing a single wavelength and multiple wavelengths with required far-field angles can be achieved using different groups of YUNA arrays on different IMI substrates. The proposed mechanism may have applications for light sources, optical imaging, optical beam steering, holography, microdisplay and cryptography.