High extinction ratio metal–insulator–semiconductor waveguide surface plasmon polariton polarizer

Abstract The attenuation characteristics of a multilayer metal clad GaAs–AlGaAs optical waveguide polarizer are theoretically investigated. The dispersion relations and field distribution of the multilayer structures are calculated for different geometrical parameters and material properties. The polarizer studied consists of a single mode finite/infinite metal clad GaAs–AlGaAs waveguide with a dielectric (SiO 2 /Si 3 N 4 ) buffer layer inserted between the metal and the waveguide.Conventionally, the TM polarized waves are found to exhibit an absorption peak at a particular buffer thickness (called critical buffer thickness).We shall show that the maximum TM absorption can be improved by a multiple factor up to 7 by choosing a buffer layer thicker than its critical value. This corresponds to an extinction ratio of 1470 dB for a polarizer length of 1 mm. Further, thicker buffers reduce the insertion losses and values as low as 0.1 dB can be obtained. The strong TM absorption in these structures is interpreted as resonant coupling of the guided mode to the lossy surface plasmon polariton supported by the thin metal film. Thicker buffer also reduces the TE losses (insertion losses) and hence increases the extinction ratio (ratio of TM to TE losses).This can be achieved by optimizing the buffer and the metal thicknesses. Another equally efficient polarizer can be designed by positioning a dielectric (same as buffer) layer (superstrate layer) above the metal film and then optimizing the buffer, metal and the superstrate thicknesses. We also show that the proposed polarizer with the superstrate layer is highly stable even when exposed to the extreme atmospheric changes.