Nanoscale light guiding in a silicon-based hybrid plasmonic waveguide that incorporates an inverse metal ridge

A silicon-based hybrid plasmonic waveguide that comprises an inverse metal ridge sitting above a silicon-on-insulator substrate with a nanometre-thick, low-index gap is proposed and its guiding mode properties are analyzed numerically at the wavelength of 1,550 nm. The strongly hybridized modes supported by the inverse metal ridge and the thin silicon layer provide an efficient scheme to store the optical field inside the nanoscale gap region with strong local field enhancement. Compared to the previously studied hybrid plasmonic waveguides based on the coupling between metal wedges or metal ridges with finite-wide high-index nanowires, the present hybrid waveguide leveraging inverse metallic wedge with infinite-wide silicon layer simplifies the fabrication process to a certain extent and avoids the lateral misalignment that is rather challenging to control in many other hybrid plasmonic waveguiding counterparts. Besides, the studied structure also shows the potential to further reduce the mode size of conventional hybrid waveguide based on flat metal substrate, thus making itself an attractive building block for compact photonic integrated components and circuits.

[1]  Masanobu Haraguchi,et al.  Theoretical and experimental investigation of strongly localized plasmons on triangular metal wedges for subwavelength waveguiding , 2005 .

[2]  Zheng Zheng,et al.  Hybrid wedge plasmon polariton waveguide with good fabrication-error-tolerance for ultra-deep-subwavelength mode confinement. , 2011, Optics express.

[3]  Fetah Benabid,et al.  Field enhancement within an optical fibre with a subwavelength air core , 2007 .

[4]  W. Barnes,et al.  Surface plasmon subwavelength optics , 2003, Nature.

[5]  Qianfan Xu,et al.  Guiding and confining light in void nanostructure. , 2004, Optics letters.

[6]  Xiang Zhang,et al.  Room-temperature sub-diffraction-limited plasmon laser by total internal reflection. , 2010, Nature materials.

[7]  X. Zhang,et al.  A hybrid plasmonic waveguide for subwavelength confinement and long-range propagation , 2008 .

[8]  X. Zhang,et al.  Ultra-compact silicon nanophotonic modulator with broadband response , 2012 .

[9]  Jing Zhang,et al.  Hybrid plasmonic waveguide with gain medium for lossless propagation with nanoscale confinement. , 2011, Optics letters.

[10]  Sailing He,et al.  A silicon-based hybrid plasmonic waveguide with a metal cap for a nano-scale light confinement. , 2009, Optics express.

[11]  Chia‐Chien Huang.  Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguide Comprising a Semiconductor Nanowire and Metal Ridge for Low-Loss Propagation and Nanoscale Confinement , 2012, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[12]  Randolph Kirchain,et al.  A roadmap for nanophotonics , 2007 .

[13]  M. Lipson.  Guiding, modulating, and emitting light on Silicon-challenges and opportunities , 2005, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[14]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[15]  F. García-Vidal,et al.  Guiding and focusing of electromagnetic fields with wedge plasmon polaritons. , 2008, Physical review letters.

[16]  Xiaobo Yin,et al.  Experimental demonstration of low-loss optical waveguiding at deep sub-wavelength scales , 2011 .

[17]  J. S. Aitchison,et al.  Super mode propagation in low index medium , 2007, 2007 Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference.

[18]  Er-Ping Li,et al.  Optical performance of single-mode hybrid dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguide-based components , 2010 .

[19]  Zheng Zheng,et al.  Coplanar Plasmonic Nanolasers Based on Edge-Coupled Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguides , 2011, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[20]  Vien Van,et al.  Conductor-gap-silicon plasmonic waveguides and passive components at subwavelength scale. , 2010, Optics express.

[21]  Andrew G. Glen,et al.  APPL , 2001 .

[22]  Zheng Zheng,et al.  Guiding of Long-Range Hybrid Plasmon Polariton in a Coupled Nanowire Array at Deep-Subwavelength Scale , 2012, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[23]  Tong Zhang,et al.  Numerical analysis of deep sub-wavelength integrated plasmonic devices based on Semiconductor-Insulator-Metal strip waveguides. , 2010, Optics express.

[24]  G. Veronis,et al.  Guided subwavelength plasmonic mode supported by a slot in a thin metal film. , 2005, Optics letters.