High System Performances With Plasmonic Waveguides and Functional Devices

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High System Performances with

Plasmonic Waveguides and Functional Devices
Wing-Ying Kwong
P.O. Box 3115, Spring Hill, FL 34611, U.S.A.
−The operating principle of plasmonic waveguides and
Abstract− electromagnetic SPP mode with an enhanced field strength
their functional devices is reviewed within the 2 to 5 µm that is confined to the nano-scale dimension of the metal
mid-infrared spectral region for higher system performances in surface. This confined SPP mode is thus tightly bound to the
data communications, signal processing and sensors industries. planar metal surface, is guided by this surface and propagates
with its energy dissipating as heat, thereby limiting the axial
I. INTRODUCTION
propagation distance of SPP modes. On the other hand, this
The influence of nano-technology in integrated optics not mode-coupling mechanism causes the transverse wave-vector
only solves the ever-increasing data-transfer capacity problem of the incident light to become imaginary, so that the
in computing systems, speeding-up electronic computer mode-field decays exponentially in the surrounding upper and
processing, but also allows computer chips to be miniaturized, lower dielectric media, away from the surface, in the direction
enabling these data to route in nanometer-scaled dimensions. normal to metal-dielectric interfaces. Thus, the dielectric
Consequently, the cost of expensive optical components can media must be sufficiently thick to include all the fields inside;
be reduced and a higher system performance can be obtained. while the metal film-stripe must be sufficiently thin so that the
These nano-photonic components use surface two SPP electric mode-fields associated with the upper and the
plasmon-polaritons (SPPs) and/or energy transfer mechanisms lower interfaces overlap and couple with each other efficiently
to integrate into electronic chips to form plasmonic chips, to form two fundamental SPP stripe-modes, of which the
within which plasmonic signals propagate along the surface of symmetric mode is considered here.
conducting metals or active control-electrodes. Such signals In order to compensate for metal losses, gain is introduced
not only can be controlled, but also can overcome the into the dielectric medium. For functional plasmonic
conventional diffraction-limit that is limiting the minimum waveguide devices, the gain dielectric is treated as another
size of conventional optical components, allowing their waveguide, so that energy can be transferred from the
dimensions to further be reduced to sub-wavelength sizes. dielectric gain medium to the propagating SPP mode,
localizing it in the metal surface; while the thin metal
II. PRINCIPLES OF PLASMONIC WAVEGUIDES AND THEIR
film-stripe confines the lasing mode to the dielectric gain
FUNCTIONAL DEVICES
medium, with the SPP mode guiding the lasing mode. Thus,
The plasmonic waveguide nano-structure considered here is propagating modes in the gain dielectric can be controlled by
a thin lossy metal film-stripe embedded in a dielectric medium. SPP modes, or vice versa.
The SPP mode can be excited at the waveguide end-face by
the end-coupling method, with a profile closely matched with A. SPP Propagation
that of the input light-wave. This incident light then interacts Metals play a major role in plasmonic waveguides and their
with mobile surface electron-charges to give rise to the devices. Through relative permittivities of respective
978-1-4244-2382-8/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE 101
Authorized licensed use limited to: Univ Nacional Edu Distancia. Downloaded on September 08,2021 at 09:06:05 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
waveguide materials, propagation characteristics of SPP achieve lossless propagation. The amount of gain required to
modes may be evaluated, yielding a dispersion relation for the fully compensate metal losses for lossless propagation may be
SPP propagation, which is the axial propagation constant, kspp. found from the coefficient of gain, which is λ0−1 dependence.
The dielectric medium cannot be significantly dispersive, so
III. OPTIMIZATION OF DEVICE PERFORMANCE
that the momentum of the SPP mode is always greater than
that of light in free-space. This also conditions kx,i, the As gain represents a loss in the dielectric, gain requirements
mode-field attenuation constant in the normal direction, to be should be as low as possible. High reflections from metals
imaginary. At optical frequencies, kspp is complex; Re(kspp) should be compensated and buffer layers of different weights
implies the wavelength of the SPP mode, λspp and Im(kspp) in chemical composition of metals should be used to relax the
implies the propagation length of the SPP mode, δspp. In a metal’s effect on guided modes and for better confinement in
plasmonic circuit, δspp is generally very short. While kx,i the gain dielectric. By choosing a proper metal film-stripe
implies penetration depths, or attenuation lengths, of the SPP dimension, one can reduce the coupling loss at the waveguide
mode-field into the dielectric, δd and into the metal, δm; δd end-face, allowing tuned SPP-mode depth and lateral profiles
measures the sensitivity of the SPP mode to refractive-index to match closely with those of the incident mode.
changes and δm implies the minimum metal film thickness to
IV. CONCLUSION
be used. Table 1 illustrates propagation characteristics of
SPP modes through parameters of four different plasmonic At wavelengths in the 2 to 5 µm mid-infrared region, the
waveguides. By inspection, λspp is always less than λ0, which size of whole plasmonic-waveguide structures can be reduced
suggests possible applications in shorter-, even in sub-, to approximately half of the operating free-space wave-length.
wavelength electromagnetic wave-guiding. δspp is at least Compensated plasmonic waveguides offer the possibility to
several times longer than λspp, implying periodic surface transmit plasmonic signals with negligible, or without, losses
structures, such as gratings, may be used for SPP and functional plasmonic waveguide devices can be
manipulations. δm shows sub-wavelength sizes of these implemented by active guided-wave control of SPP signals.
plasmonic waveguides; while δd≅λ0/4, making sizes of whole By optimizing the plasmonic waveguide geometry and careful
structures approximately λ0/2. selection of low-loss waveguide materials, one can further
The use of a dielectric gain medium can improve δspp or to reduce overall losses. Together with the proper choice of
processing conditions in nano-imprinting, low-cost,
TABLE I
high-fidelity and highly-ordered arrays of sub-wavelength
PROPAGATION CHARACTERISTICS OF SPP MODES
nano-structured photonic components can be mass-produced
Free-space
rapidly.
wavelength Metal Dielectric λspp δspp δm δd
λ0 (nm) (µm) (nm) (nm) REFERENCES

(µm)
[1] W.Y. Kwong, “High system performances with plasmonic waveguides
2 Ag AlAs 677.25 17.17 26.76 484.98
and functional devices,” unpublished.
2 Cu AlAs 670.66 8.30 31 425.65
[2] D. Hasko et al., "Structural and optical characterization of photonics
5 Fe GaAs 1477.42 6.78 50.55 1200.19
structures prepared by nanoimprint technology," abstract, Proc. SPIE,
5 Fe InP 1587.34 8.41 50.42 1372.54
Vol. 7138, 713824, November 2008.
102
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High System Performances with

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λ0 (nm) (µm) (nm) (nm) REFERENCES

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