Inverse design couplers for the excitation of odd plasmonic pairs in thin semiconducting films

Abstract

A set of grating couplers that convert plane waves into odd pairs of plasmons supported by extremely thin layers of doped indium tin oxide is designed. The inverse design approach is implemented to improve the efficiency of ordinary periodical couplers significantly. The optimization code based on the gradient descent method and direct Maxwell solver is designed in Matlab. Three models with different optimization levels are compared and discussed. The results of calculations are prepared for subsequent experimental verification. Considered odd plasmonic pairs represent an example of high quality modes tunable using a field effect. They are potentially applicable for the implementation in various active electro-optical devices and lead the way to fully semiconductor based plasmonics.