Low-loss hybrid plasmonic waveguide for compact and high-efficient photonic integration.

A new hybrid plasmonic waveguide is introduced and characterized in the paper. By coupling the photonic modes of a Si waveguide with the higher-order plasmonic modes of a silver nanowire, we demonstrate that the resultant hybrid modes possess small mode areas and long propagation distances, as well as high excitation efficiency (~90%) from the conventional dielectric modes. Such hybrid waveguides may find applications in the high-dense photonic integrations.

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