Spin-controlled plasmonics via optical Rashba effect

Observation of the optical Rashba effect in plasmonics is reported. Polarization helicity degeneracy removal, associated with the inversion symmetry violation, is attributed to the surface symmetry design via anisotropic nanoantennas with space-variant orientations. By utilizing the Rashba-induced momentum in a nanoscale kagome metastructure, we demonstrated a spin-based surface plasmon multidirectional excitation under a normal-incidence illumination. The spin-controlled plasmonics via spinoptical metasurfaces provides a route for spin-based surface-integrated photonic nanodevices and light-matter interaction control, extending the light manipulation capabilities.