Crosstalk between three-dimensional plasmonic slot waveguides.
We investigate in detail the crosstalk between plasmonic slot waveguides. We show that the coupling behavior of deep subwavelength three-dimensional (3-D) plasmonic slot waveguides is very different from the one of two-dimensional (2-D) metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) plasmonic waveguides. While in the 2-D case the coupling occurs only through the metal, in the 3-D case the coupling occurs primarily through the dielectric, in which the evanescent tail is much larger compared to the one in the metal. Thus, in most cases the coupling between 3-D plasmonic slot waveguides is much stronger than the coupling between the corresponding 2-D MDM plasmonic waveguides. Such strong coupling can be exploited to form directional couplers using plasmonic slot waveguides. On the other hand, with appropriate design, the crosstalk between 3-D plasmonic slot waveguides can be reduced even below the crosstalk levels of 2-D MDM plasmonic waveguides, without significantly affecting their modal size and attenuation length. Thus, 3-D plasmonic slot waveguides can be used for ultradense integration of optoelectronic components.
Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Georgios
G
Veronis
Shanhui
S
Fan
D016477:Artifacts; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*