Liquid-crystal tunable waveguides for integrated plasmonic components

A broad range of liquid crystal tunable plasmonic waveguides, based on long-range, dielectric-loaded, and channel surface plasmon polaritons, are theoretically designed and investigated. Liquid-crystal switching is rigorously modeled by solving for the coupled elastic/electrostatic problem, whereas the optical studies are conducted via the finite-element method. Extensive tunability of key optical properties, such as modal index, propagation losses, and modal confinement is demonstrated for waveguides of different optical confinement scale. These highly functional waveguiding structures are proposed as building blocks for the design of functional components, e.g. optical attenuators, directional couplers and switches, in integrated plasmonic chips. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.