Bends and splitters in metal-dielectric-metal subwavelength plasmonic waveguides

We investigate the performance of bends and splitters in metal-dielectric-metal subwavelength plasmonic waveguides. We show that bends and splitters with no additional loss over a very wide frequency range can be designed for metal-dielectric-metal waveguides with center layer thickness small compared to the wavelength. We also introduce the concept of characteristic impedance for such systems to account for their behavior. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.