Crosstalk between three-dimensional plasmonic slot waveguides

We investigate in detail the crosstalk between plasmonic slot waveguides. We show that the coupling behavior of deep subwavelength three-dimensional (3-D) plasmonic slot waveguides is very different from the one of two-dimensional (2-D) metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) plasmonic waveguides. While in the 2-D case the coupling occurs only through the metal, in the 3-D case the coupling occurs primarily through the dielectric, in which the evanescent tail is much larger compared to the one in the metal. Thus, in most cases the coupling between 3-D plasmonic slot waveguides is much stronger than the coupling between the corresponding 2-D MDM plasmonic waveguides. Such strong coupling can be exploited to form directional couplers using plasmonic slot waveguides. On the other hand, with appropriate design, the crosstalk between 3-D plasmonic slot waveguides can be reduced even below the crosstalk levels of 2-D MDM plasmonic waveguides, without significantly affecting their modal size and attenuation length. Thus, 3-D plasmonic slot waveguides can be used for ultradense integration of optoelectronic components. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.