Abstract
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) have been thoroughly studied in the past decades for not only sensing but also waveguiding applications. Various plasmonic device structures have been explored due to their ability to confine their optical mode to the subwavelength level. However, with the existence of metal, the large ohmic loss limits the propagation distance of the SPP and thus the scalability of such devices. Therefore, different hybrid waveguides have been proposed to overcome this shortcoming. Through fine tuning of the coupling between the SPP and a conventional waveguide mode, a hybrid mode could be excited with decent mode confinement and extended propagation distance. As an effective alternative of SPP, Bloch surface waves have been re-investigated more recently for their unique advantages. As is supported in all-dielectric structures, the optical loss for the Bloch surface wave is much lower, which stands for a much longer propagating distance. Yet, the confinement of the Bloch surface wave due to the reflections and refractions in the multilayer structure is not as tight as that of the SPP. In this work, by integrating a periodic multilayer structure that supports the Bloch surface wave with a metallic nanowire structure, a hybrid Bloch surface wave polariton could be excited. With the proposed hybrid nanowire structure, a hybrid mode is demonstrated with the deep subwavelength mode confinement and a propagation distance of tens of microns.
Highlights
Plasmonic devices possessing the capability to confine light far beyond the fundamental diffraction limit have attracted considerable attention in recent years [1]
We have proposed a Bloch-surface-polariton-based hybrid nanowire structure where where a metallic nanowire lies upon a truncated periodic multilayer substrate
With the effect of the metallic nanowire, the hybrid mode is confined more tightly compared to the Bloch surface polariton (BSP)
Summary
Plasmonic devices possessing the capability to confine light far beyond the fundamental diffraction limit have attracted considerable attention in recent years [1]. To overcome the limitations of the all-dielectric 1D PC guiding structures, hybrid configurations that integrate a thin metal film with the 1D PC structure have been proposed and demonstrated in recent years [39,44] In these guiding structures, long-range Bloch surface plasmon polaritons can be supported, showing orders of magnitude longer propagation length than the traditional SPPs. Here in this paper, inspired by these reported schemes and the potential applications in various photonic devices, we explore another type of hybrid Bloch surface plasmon polariton (HBSPP) structure by integrating metallic nanowires with dielectric-ridge-loaded 1D PC multilayer dielectrics. Our study could be expected to lay a promising foundation for further potential applications in integrated photonic devices
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