Design of Power Splitters Based on Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguides

Plasmonic power splitters based on hybrid plasmonic waveguides (HPWs) are proposed and investigated. The HPW consists of a high-permittivity semiconductor nanowire embedded in a SiO2 dielectric film near a metal surface. The propagation behaviors of Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs) in HPWs are numerically simulated by the 3D finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The incident field is transferred from the middle waveguide to the waveguides on both sides due to the coupling between adjacent waveguides. The intensity distributions can be explained by the multimode interference of SPPs supermodes. According to the field intensity distribution of five HPWs, we design a 1 x 3 power splitter and a 1 x 2 power splitter by reducing the length of some specific waveguides.

Automated summary

Plasmonic power splitters based on hybrid plasmonic waveguides are proposed and analyzed, where the propagation behaviors of Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs) in the waveguides are numerically simulated. The design of different power splitters is achieved by understanding the intensity distributions and multimode interference of SPPs supermodes in the waveguides.