Integrated Optical Polarizer for Silicon-on-Insulator Waveguides Using Evanescent Wave Coupling to Gap Plasmon-Polaritons

Resonant coupling to a gap plasmon-polariton supported by a metal-dielectric nanoscale multilayer on top of a silicon guiding core is proposed for polarization control in silicon-on-insulator waveguides. The device functionality relies on the unusual dispersion properties of the gap plasmon-polaritons, whose modal index can be significantly higher than the refractive index of the gap layer.