TY - JOUR
T1 - Finite element analysis of lossless propagation in surface plasmon polariton waveguides with nanoscale spot-sizes
AU - Krishnan, Ananth
AU - de Peralta, Luis Grave
AU - Holtz, Mark
AU - Bernussi, Ayrton A.
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received March 28, 2008; revised July 23, 2008. Current version published April 24, 2009. This work was supported in part by the U.S. Army CERDEC Contract (W15P7T-07-D-P040) and by the J. F. Maddox Foundation. A. Krishnan and A. A. Bernussi are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409 USA (e-mail: ananth.krishnan@ttu.edu; ayrton.bernussi@ttu.edu). L. G. de Peralta and M. Holtz are with the Department of Physics, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409 USA (e-mail: luis.grave-de-peralta@ttu.edu; MARK.HOLTZ@ttu.edu). Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JLT.2008.929417
PY - 2009/5/1
Y1 - 2009/5/1
N2 - We present simulation results on the propagation characteristics of active plasmonic waveguides at 1.55 μm wavelength based on semiconductors as the active gain media. Three waveguide structures were investigated: metal rib, metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM), and triangular metal groove. In all three structures, we observed strong plasmon mode confinement with nanoscale spot-sizes and corresponding simulated gain values compatible with existing semiconductor technology. We show the effect of systematic modification of waveguide geometry on the required gain for achieving lossless propagation in all the three plasmonic waveguide structures. We demonstrate that lossless propagation with subwavelength spot sizes well below the diffraction limit of light can be obtained by controlling the geometrical parameters of the proposed waveguides.
AB - We present simulation results on the propagation characteristics of active plasmonic waveguides at 1.55 μm wavelength based on semiconductors as the active gain media. Three waveguide structures were investigated: metal rib, metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM), and triangular metal groove. In all three structures, we observed strong plasmon mode confinement with nanoscale spot-sizes and corresponding simulated gain values compatible with existing semiconductor technology. We show the effect of systematic modification of waveguide geometry on the required gain for achieving lossless propagation in all the three plasmonic waveguide structures. We demonstrate that lossless propagation with subwavelength spot sizes well below the diffraction limit of light can be obtained by controlling the geometrical parameters of the proposed waveguides.
KW - Metal-semiconductor interfaces
KW - Optical waveguides
KW - Plasmon
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=65949092196&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/JLT.2008.929417
DO - 10.1109/JLT.2008.929417
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:65949092196
SN - 0733-8724
VL - 27
SP - 1114
EP - 1121
JO - Journal of Lightwave Technology
JF - Journal of Lightwave Technology
IS - 9
ER -