Analysis and Optimum Design of Hybrid Plasmonic Slab Waveguides

Propagation properties of hybrid plasmonic slab waveguides are studied in detail using transfer matrix method considering structural and material aspects. Hybrid metal-insulator, hybrid metal-insulator-metal, and hybrid insulator-metal-insulator waveguides are considered. Propagation length (L-p), spatial length (L-s), and mode length (L-m) are utilized as three common figures of merit to compare and optimize the waveguides according to the layer thicknesses and metal/dielectric materials. The effect of constituting materials including metals (such as silver, gold, copper, and aluminum) and dielectrics (common dielectric materials used in photonic integrated circuit technologies such as silicon and silicon compounds, III-V compounds, and polymers) are discussed. It is found that hybrid waveguides are partially to completely superior to conventional plasmonic waveguides, providing a better balance between confinement and loss.