Nano-Plasmonic Filters Based on Tooth-Shaped Waveguide Structures

Abstract

Along with development of human society and technology, it becomes more dependable on the miniaturization and integration of semiconductor components, circuits and devices. The performance of integrated circuits, such as micro-processor, is in accordance with the famous Moore’s law that the number of transistors placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. However, the integration of modern electronic components and devices for information communication and processing have been approaching its fundamental speed and bandwidth limitation, because the ultra-intensive electrical interconnects have an increased effective resistor-capacitor (RC) time constant that increases the time of charging and discharging [1, 2]. This has caused an increasing serious problem that hinders further development in many fields of modern science and technology. Using light signals instead of electronic is one of the most promising solutions. The speed of optical signal is on the order of 108 m/s, which is about 3 orders of the saturation velocity of electrons in a semiconductor such as silicon [3]. However, a major problem with using light as information carrier in conventional optical devices is the poor performance of integration and miniaturization. Dielectric waveguides are basic components and cannot allow the localization of electromagnetic waves into subwavelength-scale regions because of diffraction limit λ0/2n, here λ0 is the wavelength of the light in the free space and n is the refractive index of the dielectric. Photonic crystal (PC) structures and devices have been studied by many researchers since E. Yablonovitch and S. John ’ s two milestone published papers in 1987 [4, 5], which confirmed that the light can be confined in the nanoscale. However, the dimensions of the PC system are on the order of the wavelength or even larger, making them less appropriate for nano-scale optical elements integration.