Highly confined low-loss light transmission in linear array-enabled hybrid plasmonic waveguides

Deep subwavelength highly confined and long-range optical propagation is vital for photonics integration. However, the performance of the guided mode could be improved by the trade-off between light confinement and loss. Here, we demonstrate a high-performance hybrid waveguide consisting of a high-index nanowire separated from a linear array by a low-index dielectric gap. The array significantly achieves the plasmonic platform optimization based on a linear combination of few-layer graphene (FLG) and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) layers. Through the hybridization of graphene plasmon polaritons and hyperbolic phonon polaritons mode, the resulting hybrid waveguide shows at least double times larger propagation distance and smaller mode area than the multilayer waveguide. Further, modulated by altering material configuration and geometric effects, the mode properties reveal that it is more flexible to adjust the optical transmission, along with a strong deep-subwavelength mode with low loss. Because of highly confined low-loss propagation, the hybrid waveguide is expected to be an excellent building block for various mid-infrared photonic integrated circuits. The present structure also has the potential to be extended to other FLGs, like magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene and trilayer graphene/hBN moire superlattice.

Automated summary

This paper presents a high-performance hybrid waveguide structure consisting of a high-index nanowire separated by a low-index dielectric gap. The structure allows for flexible control of light transmission through material configuration and geometric effects, enabling highly integrated and low-loss photonics. It is expected to be a valuable building block for various mid-infrared photonic integrated circuits.