Hybrid wedge plasmon polariton waveguide with good fabrication-error-tolerance for ultra-deep-subwavelength mode confinement

Abstract

A novel hybrid plasmonic waveguide consisting of a high-index dielectric nanowire placed above a triangular metal wedge substrate is proposed and analyzed theoretically. The strong coupling between the wedge plasmon polariton and the dielectric nanowire mode results in both the ultra-tight confinement and low propagation loss. Compared to the previous studied hybrid surface plasmon polariton structures without the metal wedge substrate, stronger field enhancement in the low-index gap region as well as improved figure of merit (FOM) could be realized simultaneously. Results of the modal properties considering certain fabrication imperfections show that the proposed structure is also quite tolerant to these errors.