Mode conversion enhancement between silicon micro-slab and plasmonic nano-gap waveguides

Abstract

We investigate a short (~1.5{\mu}m) partially-corrugated tapered waveguide structure for mode coupling from a silicon micro-slab to a plasmonic nano-gap waveguide at the optical communication frequency. More than 80% transmission efficiency is reported numerically for the first time. The result indicates that the corrugated waveguide structure should not only be helpful for realizing full on-chip silicon plasmonic devices but also a good choice for mode coupling enhancement from dielectric waveguides to plasmonic waveguides. Meanwhile, we point out that the coupling mechanism reported here is different from that achieved by exciting surface plasmon polaritions (SPPs) at metal surfaces reported in [17] and [18].