Miniaturized ultra-low loss subwavelength waveguide at terahertz frequency

Abstract

Compact low-loss terahertz waveguides are crucial in integrating the terahertz devices in the newly emerging field of terahertz photonics. One of the promising structures used for this purpose are photonic crystal waveguides. However, device compactness is limited due to diffraction. This study deals with the possibility of going beyond the diffraction-limited property of a photonic crystal. We demonstrate, numerically, terahertz wave-guiding with up to subwavelength confinement factor of λ2/ (mode surface) = 306 in a 2D structure consisting of square lattice of ionic cylinders in an air matrix. The total loss can be further mitigated due to an increase of spectral width of photonic band gap in a dispersive structure compared to that of an otherwise non-dispersive structure. According to the results, the square-lattice geometry supports TE-polarized guided modes with higher confinement factor compared with that of TM-polarized guided modes.