Low cross-talk, deep subwavelength plasmonic metal/insulator/metal waveguide intersections with broadband tunability

Abstract

We suggest a low cross-talk plasmonic cross-connector based on a metal/insulator/metal cavity and waveguides. We separately investigate the isolated cavity mode, the waveguide mode, and the combination of cavity and waveguide modes using a finite-different time-domain method. Due to resonant tunneling and the cutoff frequency of the odd waveguide mode, our proposed structure achieves a high throughput transmission ratio and eliminates cross-talk. Furthermore, the proposed structure has a broadband tunability of 587 nm, which can be achieved by modulating the cavity air gap thickness. This structure enables the miniaturization of photonic integrated circuits and sensing applications. (C) 2016 Chinese Laser Press