Wavelength selection by dielectric-loaded plasmonic components

Fabrication, characterization, and modeling of waveguide-ring resonators and in-line Bragg gratings for wavelength selection in the telecommunication range are reported utilizing dielectric-loaded surface plasmon-polariton waveguides. The devices were fabricated by depositing subwavelength-sized polymer ridges on a smooth gold film using industrially compatible large-scale UV photolithography. We demonstrate efficient and compact wavelength-selective filters, including waveguide-ring resonators with an insertion loss of similar to 2 dB and a footprint of only 150 mu m(2) featuring narrow bandwidth (similar to 20 nm) and high contrast (similar to 13 dB) features in the transmission spectrum. The performance of the components is found in good agreement with the results obtained by full vectorial three-dimensional finite element simulations.