Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguides and Devices: Theory, Modeling and Experimental Demonstration

• Main Author: Sun, Xiao
• Other Authors: Mojahedi, Mohammad
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: plasmonic waveguide; polarizer; integrated optical circuit; 0544
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/35684

This thesis prompt a theoretical analysis of the hybrid plasmonic waveguide (HPWG) and a TE-pass polarizer based on HPWG has been designed, fabricated and characterized. A combination of low propagation loss, high power density, and large confinement is useful for many applications. The analysis results in this thesis show that the HPWG offers a better compromise between loss and confinement as compared to pure plasmonic waveguides. Another interesting property of the HPWG is its polarization diversity. In the HPWG the transverse electric and the transverse magnetic modes reside in different layers. We have designed a very compact hybrid TE-pass polarizer using this property. The polarizer was fabricated and characterized. The device shows low insertion loss for the TE mode with a high extinction ratio at telecommunication wavelength range for a 30 µm long HPWG section. Its performance compares favorably against previously reported silicon based integrated optic TE-pass polarizers.