IEICE Trans - Guiding and Nanofocusing of Two-Dimensional Optical Beam for Nanooptical Integrated Circuits

Guiding and Nanofocusing of Two-Dimensional Optical Beam for Nanooptical Integrated Circuits

Junichi TAKAHARA
Fuminori KUSUNOKI

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics Vol.E90-C No.1 pp.87-94
Publication Date: 2007/01/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1353
DOI: 10.1093/ietele/e90-c.1.87
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section INVITED PAPER (Special Section on Microoptomechatronics)
Category:
Keyword:
nanophotonics, plasmonics, surface plasmon polariton, two-dimensional optical wave, negative dielectric,

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Summary:
Guiding and nanofocusing of a two-dimensional (2D) optical beam in a negative-dielectric-gap waveguide is studied theoretically. An index-guiding method along the dielectric core embedded in the negative-dielectric-gap is proposed and the confinement properties of the 2D optical beam are studied by the effective-refractive-index method and FDTD simulations. We have shown that the lateral beam width of the 2D optical beam can be shrunk to zero beyond the diffraction limit. A tapered negative-dielectric-gap waveguide using adiabatic propagation achieves nano-focusing and can be applied to nano-optical couplers. This is a gateway from conventional dielectric waveguides to nano-optical integrated circuits.