Effective plasmonic mode-size converter

Abstract

Plasmonic mode-size converters (PMSCs) for long-range surface plasmon polaritons (LR-SPPs) at the wavelength of 1.55 μm are presented. The PMSC is composed of an insulator-metal-insulator waveguide (IMI-W), a laterally tapered insulator-metal-insulator-metal-insulator waveguide (LT-IMIMI-W), and an IMIMI-W in series. The mode-intensity sizes of the LR-SPPs for the IMI-W and the IMIMI-W were not only calculated using a finite element method but were also experimentally measured. The propagation losses of the IMI-W and the IMIMI-W as well as the coupling losses between them were analyzed by the cut-back method to investigate the effect of LT-IMIMI-Ws. By using the PMSC with a ~27 ° angled LT-IMIMI-W, the coupling loss between a polarization-maintaining fiber and a 3 μm-wide IMIMI-W was reduced by ~3.4 dB. Moreover, the resulting mode-intensity in the output of the PMSC was squeezed to ~35% of the mode-intensity in the input IMI-W. The PMSC may be potentially useful for bridging micro- to nano-plasmonic integrated circuits.

Mode-size converters for nano plasmonic integrated circuits

“…To convert an s 0 mode to an Ss 0 mode and squeeze the Ss 0 mode, lateral tapered IMIMI-Ws were introduced [3]. Fig.…”

Suppressed Transmission of Long-Range Surface Plasmon Polariton by TE-Induced Edge Plasmon

“…The quantum properties of a photon-pair, including entanglement, can be preserved even in the conversion of photons into SPPs (photon-SPP), and vice versa (SPP-photon) [16,17]. A high bit-rate and the WDM data transmission over plasmonic waveguides were well demonstrated with low bit error rates [18,19] and there have been many efforts to develop waveguide-based plasmonic devices, for example the demultiplexer [20], a mode converter [12,[21][22][23], a coupler [24,25], and a logic gate [26], as building blocks for nanoplasmonic integrated circuits (NPICs).…”

Sa<SUB>0</SUB> Mode Converter for Nano Plasmonic Integrated Circuits

“…Therefore, SPPs have been widely studied in micro-to nano-photonic applications. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] On a metal waveguide, SPP modes are independently excited on top and bottom sides. If the metal layer is thinner than skin depth, SPPs on each metal-insulator boundary combine to form long-range SPPs (LRSPPs) and short-range SPPs (SRSPPs).…”