Highly efficient plasmonic interconnector based on the asymmetric junction between metal-dielectric-metal and dielectric slab waveguides

Propagation-Invariant Space-Time Plasmonic Pulse in Subwavelength MIM Waveguide

The metal-insulator-metal (MIM) plasmonic waveguide has been highly anticipated for confining and guiding surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on the subwavelength scale. However, perennial drawbacks such as a short propagation length and an unbounded transverse field have set limits on the use of the MIM waveguide in various applications. Herein, diffraction- and dispersion-free MIM modes are synthesized by using space-time wave packets (STWPs) and are therefore referred to as space-time MIM (ST-MIM) waveguide modes. Compared to a Gaussian pulse of the same duration and spectral bandwidth, the ST-MIM demonstrates enhanced propagation lengths of about 2.4 times for the symmetric mode and about 6.3 times for the antisymmetric mode. In the simulations, the ST-MIMs are confined in all transverse dimensions, thereby overriding the diffraction limits. In addition, the group velocities of the ST-MIMs can be arbitrarily designed, which makes it possible to synchronize the pulse propagation speeds of the symmetric and antisymmetric MIM modes.

Silicon-Based Optoelectronics Enhanced by Hybrid Plasmon Polaritons: Bridging Dielectric Photonics and Nanoplasmonics

Silicon-based optoelectronics large-scale integrated circuits have been of interest to the world in recent decades due to the need for higher complexity, larger link capacity, and lower cost. Surface plasmons are electromagnetic waves that propagate along the interface between a conductor and a dielectric, which can be confined several orders smaller than the wavelength in a vacuum and offers the potential for minimizing photonic circuits to the nanoscale. However, plasmonic waveguides are usually accompanied by substantial propagation loss because metals always exhibit significant resistive heating losses when interacting with light. Therefore, it is better to couple silicon-based optoelectronics and plasmonics and bridge the gap between micro-photonics and nanodevices, especially some nano-electronic devices. In this review, we discuss methods to enhance silicon-based optoelectronics by hybrid plasmon polaritons and summarize some recently reported designs. It is believed that by utilizing the strong light confinement of plasmonics, we can overcome the conventional diffraction limit of light and further improve the integration of optoelectronic circuits.

Generation of long-range curved-surface plasmonic modes and their propagation through thin metal films in a tandem array

We describe the generation of plasmonic modes that propagate in a curved trajectory. This is performed by masking a metal surface with two screens containing a randomly distributed set of holes that follow a Gaussian statistic. The diameter of the holes is less than the wavelength of the illuminating plane wave. By implementing scaling and rotations on each screen, we control the correlation trajectory and generate long-range curved plasmonic modes. The study is generalized for the transmission of a plasmonic mode propagating in a tandem array of thin metal films using the evanescent character of the electric field.

Polarization-multiplexed plasmonic phase generation with distributed nanoslits

Methods for multiplexing surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) have been attracting much attention due to their potentials for plasmonic integrated systems, plasmonic holography, and optical tweezing. Here, using closely-distanced distributed nanoslits, we propose a method for generating polarization-multiplexed SPP phase profiles which can be applied for implementing general SPP phase distributions. Two independent types of SPP phase generation mechanisms - polarization-independent and polarization-reversible ones - are combined to generate fully arbitrary phase profiles for each optical handedness. As a simple verification of the proposed scheme, we experimentally demonstrate that the location of plasmonic focus can be arbitrary designed, and switched by the change of optical handedness.

Light transfer from quantum-dot-doped polymer nanowires to silver nanowires

The plasmons of two silver nanowires are simultaneously excited by photoluminescence of the quantum-dot-doped nanowire under 532 nm laser excitation.

Efficient transition between photonic and plasmonic guided modes at abrupt junction of MIM plasmonic waveguide

We propose a novel metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguide mode transition scheme by the use of the abrupt junction of MIM plasmonic waveguide. Power coupling between anti-symmetric plasmonic mode and fundamental photonic mode can be easily done by reflection at the waveguide junction with an oblique MIM mode incidence due to the field intersection between those modes. With numerical simulation we find that mode conversion efficiency can be obtained up to 60% for single junction geometry, and it can be further increased up to 82% with the suppression of non-transited mode by adapting Bragg grating structure composed of periodical arranges of MIM junctions.