Unidirectional transmission based on polarization conversion and excitation of magnetic or surface polaritons

We propose in this work combing a uniaxial crystal slab with a one-dimensional grating to realize unidirectional transmission (UDT). The physical mechanism for the UDT is attributed to polarization conversion with uniaxial crystal slab and excitation of magnetic polaritons (MPs) or surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in the grating region. Numerical simulations were performed by taking hexagonal boron nitride as the uniaxial crystal. The results reveal that UDT can be achieved for both TE and TM waves in the mid-infrared and the optical regions if the grating material is respectively selected as silicon carbide (SiC) and silver (Ag) with properly chosen values of the structure’s geometric parameters. This work may provide important guidelines for design of novel unidirectional transmission devices.