Silicon-on-Insulator Platform for Integration of 3-D Nanoplasmonic Devices

We experimentally demonstrate a compact platform to convert near-infrared signals between nanoplasmonic and nanophotonic domains. In particular, we utilize a pair of adiabatic nanoplasmonic tapers to assist direct-coupling and shrink the plasmonic guiding area to a deep-subwavelength scale as small as 50-nm-by-80-nm with a propagation loss of 2.28 dB/mu m. The integrated plasmonic devices developed on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate could build up a solid platform for plasmonic gauges of ultrafast communications and optical sensing.