Novel hybrid plasmonic-based directional coupler on InP substrate

• Published in: Photonics and nanostructures Vol. 22; pp. 9 - 17
• Main Authors: Nikoufard, M., Heydari, N., Pourgholi, S., Rostami Khomami, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-11-2016; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Band gap; Dielectrics; Directional coupler; Directional couplers; Gallium indium arsenide phosphide; Hybrid plasmonic waveguide; Indium phosphides; InP material; Integrated circuits; Optical communication; Photonics; Propagation; Substrates; Wave propagation; Directional coupler; InP material; Hybrid plasmonic waveguide
• ISSN: 1569-4410; 1569-4429
• DOI: 10.1016/j.photonics.2016.08.002

•A novel hybrid plasmonic waveguide with a layer stack of Au/InP/InGaAsP on InP substrate was described in this study.•The fabrication process of this device is simple and compatible with InP-based devices.•The propagation length of this hybrid waveguide is sufficient to keep the propagation loss less than the length of passive devices.
A novel hybrid plasmonic waveguide with a layer stack of Au/InP/InGaAsP on InP substrate was described in this study. Previously, the layer stack was utilized to fabricate all passive and active conventional photonic integrated circuits. It has been demonstrated that the optical field will be confined in the interface of InP/Au at the optical communication wavelength of 1550nm. The propagation length in the proposed hybrid plasmonic waveguide is over 20μm. A directional coupler was also investigated using the present layer structure, which shows a minimum coupling length of 2μm.