Spiral modes supported by circular dielectric tubes and tube segments

The modal properties of curved dielectric slab waveguides are investigated. We consider quasi-confined, attenuated modes that propagate at oblique angles with respect to the axis through the center of curvature. Our analytical model describes the transition from scalar 2-D TE/TM bend modes to lossless spiral waves at near-axis propagation angles, with a continuum of vectorial attenuated spiral modes in between. Modal solutions are characterized in terms of directional wavenumbers and attenuation constants. Examples for vectorial mode profiles illustrate the effects of oblique wave propagation along the curved slab segments. For the regime of lossless spiral waves, the relation with the guided modes of corresponding dielectric tubes is demonstrated.     

Low-loss surface modes and lossy hybrid modes in metamaterial waveguides

We show that waveguides with a dielectric core and a lossy metamaterial cladding (metamaterial-dielectric guides) can support hybrid ordinary-surface modes previously only known for metal-dielectric waveguides. These hybrid modes are potentially useful for frequency filtering applications as sharp changes in field attenuation occur at tailorable frequencies. Our results also show that the surface modes of a metamaterial-dielectric waveguide with comparable electric and magnetic losses can be less lossy than the surface modes of an analogous metal-dielectric waveguide with electric losses alone. Through a characterization of both slab and cylindrical metamaterial-dielectric guides, we find that the surface modes of the cylindrical guides show promise as candidates for all-optical control of low-intensity pulses.     

Quantum Theory of Surface Polaritons in Semi-Infinite Dielectric Systems

The interaction system of a semi-infinite diatomic dielectric and the electromagnetic field propagating parallelly to the surface is studied. The long-wave optical phonon modes of the semi-infinite dielectric are calculated including the electronic polarizability by a quantum-mechanical theory. Retardation effects are neglected. A quantum field theory method of surface polaritons is developed to calculate the operator describing the interaction between a photon and the phonon polarization fields of the semi-infinite crystal, with explicit inclusion of surface effects. The dispersion relations of the surface phonon-polaritons are derived and discussed. The results are in good agreement with those obtained by the conventional, macroscopic dielectric theory of surface polaritons and experimental ATR (attenuated total reflection) spectra. The dispersion cuwes of polariton leaking modes caused by the interaction between bulk TO mode with surface effect and photons are presented in a graphical form. The k_||-dependence of the electric field strength in each polariton branch is calculated and presented also in a graphical form. We also research the spatial dependence of the field strength in each polariton branch. It is found that these properties are influenced and modulated by the surface phonons because of the interaction between photons and the surface phonon modes of the semi-infinite dielectric system. Hence the divergent nature (diffraction effect) of light propagating along the fib& and waveguides is restrained. We present a method how to use the boundary conditions in the quantum theory, which will be discussed in detail.     

Hybrid waveguide-surface plasmon polariton modes in a guided-mode resonance grating

We analyze the coupling between surface plasmon polaritons in a metal grating and the guided modes of a dielectric waveguide. Our model structure is a gold wire grating on a slab waveguide made of silicon nitride on silica wafer. The excitation of guided-mode resonances, surface plasmon polariton modes and hybrid waveguide-plasmon modes are observed in numerical simulations. Our experiments verify the existence of the predicted modes. These hybrid modes add significant degrees of freedom in designing structures for plasmonic applications.     

Analysis of surface and guided wave plasmon polariton modes in insulator–metal–insulator planar plasmonic waveguides

Theoretical and experimental study of the surface plasmon–polariton and guided wave plasmon polariton modes is presented for the Sapphire/Ag/Polycarbonate/Air structure. Theoretical results are obtained by solving complex multilayer eigenvalue equations as well as the reflectivity equation for this structure. It is proposed that the mode attenuation can be significantly reduced by inserting a low index dielectric buffer between the metal and the guiding dielectric layer. The dispersion and attenuation curves are generated. Both the surface plasmon and guided wave plasmon polariton modes are studied experimentally. The experimental values of the effective refractive indices agree well with the theoretical values. The electric field profiles are generated and used to examine the nature of modes. After optimization of various parameters the condition for low loss single mode guiding is obtained for the proposed structure. Effect of metal thickness on surface plasmon mode is also discussed. It is inferred that in a properly optimized plasmonic waveguide, the losses can be reduced by a factor of 4.     

Gap maps, diffraction losses, and exciton–polaritons in photonic crystal slabs

A theory of photonic crystal (PhC) slabs is described, which relies on an expansion in the basis of guided modes of an effective homogeneous waveguide and on treating the coupling to radiative modes and the resulting losses by perturbation theory. The following applications are discussed for the case of a high-index membrane: gap maps for photonic lattices in a waveguide; exciton–polariton states, when the PhC slab contains a quantum well with an excitonic resonance; propagation losses of line-defect modes in W1 waveguides, also in the presence of disorder; the quality factors of photonic nanocavities. In particular, we predict that disorder-induced losses below 0.2 dB/mm can be achieved in state-of-the-art samples by increasing the channel width of W1 waveguides.     

Engineering optical gradient force from coupled surface plasmon polariton modes in nanoscale plasmonic waveguides

We explore the dispersion properties and optical gradient forces from mutual coupling of surface plasmon polariton(SPP) modes at two interfaces of nanoscale plasmonic waveguides with hyperbolic metamaterial cladding.With Maxwell's equations and Maxwell stress tensor,we calculate and compare the dispersion relation and optical gradient force for symmetric and antisymmetric SPP modes in two kinds of nanoscale plasmonic waveguides.The numerical results show that the optical gradient force between two coupled hyperbolic metamaterial waveguides can be engineered flexibly by adjusting the waveguide structure parameters.Importantly,an alternative way to boost the optical gradient force is provided through engineering the hyperbolic metamaterial cladding of suitable orientation.These special optical properties will open the door for potential optomechanical applications,such as optical tweezers and actuators.     

包含左手材料的四层平板波导中的光导模

研究一个芯子层是左手材料,其他三层由传统材料构成的四层平板光波导系统,利用图解法对各种TE偏振的导波模式的解进行详细分析.研究表明,四层左手材料光波导既能支持振荡导模,也能支持表面导模,与三层左手材料光波导相比较,此四层波导的导波模式呈现一些新的特性.对于中间传统材料层存在振荡场的情形:芯子层支持振荡导模的光波导中存在基模,并且高阶振荡导模出现模式缺失的性质;芯子层支持表面导模的光波导可以支持基模和多个高阶模式,并且存在模式兼并的性质.对于中间传统材料层存在衰减场的情形,此四层波导结构可等效为三层左手材料光波导.这些新的光波导传输性质对各种光波导器件的制作有潜在的应用价值.     

Multiple modes of surface plasmonic polaritons in transversely-truncated metal/dielectric superlattices

The surface plasmonic polariton (SPP) of a transversely-truncated metal/dielectric superlattice (SL) structure has been solved with an approximate method. The effect of inter-layer interfaces in the SL is taken into consideration efficiently in comparison with the effective-medium method. The silver/air and silver/SiO₂ SLs with a shorter period are regarded as two specific examples in numerical calculation. A series of separated SPP modes are found and highly localized at the surface, and the highest-frequency mode is the only one also predicated by the effective-medium method. These results obviously show the effect of inter-layer interfaces in the case of short period, whilst the reliability and limitation of the effective-medium method is presented as well. Because the skin depths of the modes are extremely small, the SLs can be used as ideal surface-wave waveguides.     

Refraction of a surface polariton by an interface

We have calculated the transmission and reflection coefficients for a surface polariton that is incident normally on the interface between two different surface active dielectric media characterized by real, scalar, frequency dependent dielectric functions. Numerical solutions are obtained by matching the boundary conditions for the electromagnetic fields at the interface between the media and between each medium and the vacuum above it. The energy carried away by the vacuum modes is also calculated.     

Coupled mode analysis of light modulation in dielectric waveguides

A detailed analysis of electrooptic light modulation in optical waveguides is presented. Several important problems of a waveguide modulator, such as the difference of waveguide axes from crystalline electrooptic ones, the distribution of transverse and longitudinal field components of light modes, and the traveling-wave property of the modulating field, are discussed. The analysis is based on the coupled mode theory, regarding the modulation as the coupling among sidebands of unperturbed waveguide modes. The coupled mode equation is derived for the modulation in optical waveguides. It can be solved if the normal modes of the waveguide are given. Actually the equation is solved for the modulation in dielectric slab waveguides and the mechanism of modulation is discussed. The results of the analysis are applied to designing two types of waveguide modulators. In an example (10.6 μm modulator with a GaAs slab waveguide) a new efficient crystal orientation is found. The calculated phase retardation with this orientation is 0.13 rad/(V·cm) with a 1 μm thick slab. Another example of a 0.633 μm modulator using a LiTaO₃ crystal as a substrate is also described.     

Optical interaction in a plasmonic metallic particle chain coupled to a metallic film

We study the coupling of localized surface plasmon and surface plasmon polariton modes in a system composed of a metallic nanoparticle chain imbedded in a dielectric–metal–dielectric substrate. The results show the influence of outside parts and imbedded parts of particles on the interaction between localized surface plasmon and surface plasmon polariton modes. An enhancement can be observed in our structure. This kind of the structure has a very promising candidate for biosensing and surface enhanced spectroscopy applications.     

基于时域有限差分法分析等离子波导和介质波导耦合

使用Rsoft软件中的时域有限差分模块Fullwave分析二维介质波导和等离子波导耦合特性,利用软件仿真耦合结构并自动计算出光在介质波导和等离子波导中传输的耦合效率,进而测绘耦合效率随波导尺寸和光波长的变化曲线图,发现MDM导波结构的缝隙宽度和光通信质量密切相关,在确定尺寸下,传输损耗随传输距离成指数衰减.根据分析得到的耦合效率变化规律发现介质波导和等离子波导间距最佳点都应设为15 nm,进而优化波导的几何结构参数后,可以将耦合效率提高到83%.     

An assessment of coherent coupling through radiation fields in time varying slab waveguides

This paper presents an analytical methodology for analysing two-dimensional, dielectric slab waveguides where the guiding region is subject to abrupt and arbitrary temporal changes in permittivity. The methodology solves Maxwell’s equations in the frequency domain and recovers the solutions for the guided and radiation fields in the time domain using the Laplace transformation (LT). Explicit separation of the complete field solution into a set of guided modes and a radiation field continuum provides a clearer insight into the transient effects present in time-varying dielectric waveguides. In particular, the method is used to assess and quantify the impact of coherent radiation field coupling for arbitrary time variation of the waveguide permittivity.     

Quantum and geometric effects on the symmetric and anti-symmetric modes of the surface plasma wave

The propagation of the surface quantum plasma waves is investigated in a thin quantum plasma slab. The symmetric and anti-symmetric dispersion modes of the quantum surface wave are obtained by the plasma dielectric function with the kinetic dispersion model for the slab geometry. The quantum mechanical and slab geometric effects on the symmetric and anti-symmetric modes are also discussed.     

Circular arc plasmonic waveguide couplers between two-dimensional dielectric slab waveguides and plasmonic waveguides

We investigate the properties of arc plasmonic waveguide coupler between two-dimensional dielectric slab waveguides and plasmonic waveguides with two-dimensional finite difference time domain methods. The simulation results show that transmission efficiency between high index dielectric slab waveguides with width 300 nm and silver-air-silver waveguides with width 40 nm connected by the coupler can reach to 90.4% at optical communication wavelength. And, by optimizing the shapes near the ends of the coupler, the transmission efficiency can be improved to 98.4%.     

Characterization of polarization states of surface plasmon polariton modes by Fourier-plane leakage microscopy

We demonstrate that the polarization states of guided wave surface plasmon polariton (SPP) modes can be unambiguously identified by introducing a linear polarizer in the optical path of the light within a leakage-based microscope. We show the use of Fourier-plane leakage-based microscopy as a polarization characterization method to study the polarization states of SPP modes excited in plasmonic waveguides. Our results indicate that the inclusion of a linear polarizer provides additional image processing capabilities to leakage-based microscopes.     

紫外表面等离激元在基于氧化锌纳米线的半导体-绝缘介质-金属结构中的输运特性研究

研究了紫外表面等离激元在半导体纳米线-绝缘介质-金属构成的波导结构中的输运问题,借助有限元方法,对这种波导所支持导模的电磁能分布、有效折射率、传播长度和有效模场面积随电磁参数和几何结构参数的依赖关系进行了分析.计算结果表明:以氧化锌纳米线作为增益介质,绝缘材料选择折射率小的空气,金属选择铝能够实现对输出光场的亚波长约束,有效模场面积达到λ2/100,同时保持低的传输损耗和高场强限制能力;有望用作纳米光源,使得相关的生物探测器件和医疗诊断设备实现更高的灵敏度和更小的体积.     

左手介质矩形波导导模和表面模的场分布

从麦克斯韦方程组出发,结合电磁场的边界条件,推导出介质矩形波导导模的一般色散方程.对普通介质矩形波导和左手介质矩形波导的导模场分布分别进行了数值模拟.通过对比两种介质矩形波导的导模场分布的模拟结果,发现左手介质矩形波导Ex22模的场分布比普通介质波导Ex00模的场更集中在波导中部.同时,根据处理普通介质矩形波导的Marcatili方法.类比得到左手介质矩形波导表面模的色散方程,并数值模拟了低阶模的场分布,结果表明,能量主要集中在波导的四个角区以及波导的边缘.     

Characteristics analysis of hybrid plasmonic waveguide for low-loss lightwave guiding

It has been experimentally demonstrated that a low-loss guided hybrid mode is supported if a metal strip is embedded in a low index polymer layer surrounded by two high index slabs. In this paper, further numerical analyses on the guided hybrid modes are reported to fully elucidate the characteristics of the hybrid plasmonic waveguide. For a one-dimensional slab structure with a metal film of infinite width, simulation results exhibit that low-loss guided hybrid modes are associated with surface plasmon modes and dual dielectric slab modes. The optical properties of the guided modes are improved by increasing the field intensity which is confined into lossless dielectric layers by decreasing the metal film thickness and increasing the refractive index and thickness of the high-index slabs. The finite element method is used to investigate the lateral mode confinement of the optical guided modes by the corresponding metal strip. By reducing the metal film width, the guided modes are confined in the plane transverse to the direction of propagation and the characteristics are significantly improved. The hybrid plasmonic waveguide can be exploited for long-range propagation-based application such as optical interconnection.