Nanofocusing in a metal–insulator–metal gap plasmon waveguide with a three-dimensional linear taper

Abstract

The development of techniques for efficiently confining photons on the deep sub-wavelength spatial scale will revolutionize scientific research and engineering practices. The efficient coupling of light into extremely small nanofocusing devices has been a major challenge in on-chip nanophotonics because of the need to overcome various loss mechanisms and the on-chip nanofabrication challenges. Here, we demonstrate experimentally the achievement of highly efficient nanofocusing in an Au–SiO_2–Au gap plasmon waveguide using a carefully engineered three-dimensional taper. The dimensions of the SiO_2 layer, perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation, taper linearly below 100 nm. Our simulations suggest that the three-dimensional linear-tapering approach could focus 830 nm light into a 2 × 5 nm^2 area with ≤3 dB loss and an intensity enhancement of 3.0 × 10^4. In a two-photon luminescence measurement, our device achieved an intensity enhancement of 400 within a 14 × 80 nm2 area, and a transmittance of 74%.