Abstract
As a basic optical device, the optical directional coupler (ODC) is basically used as optical splitters, optic switches and so on. A novel ODC employing surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) is proposed for high integration. The finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is adopted to simulate and analyze its properties. Results show that the ODC proposed here follows the general regulations of a conventional dielectric ODC, but its transverse size is of nanoscale, which improves the optical integration greatly. For 1550 nm and 1310 nm input wavelengths, when the coupling region length (L) equals half of its coupling length, the Excess Loss is respectively 0.57 dB and 0.56 dB, which is practical in applications. So the research on the present ODC is of some practical importance.
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Supported by the Project of Guangdong Natural Science Funds for the Research on Nano-integrated Waveguide Devices Based On Surface Plasmon Polariton (Grant No. 07117866) and the Key Project of the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province of China (Grant No. 05200534)
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Zhao, H., Huang, X. & Huang, J. Surface plasmon polaritons based optical directional coupler. Sci. China Ser. G-Phys. Mech. Astron. 51, 1877–1882 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-008-0187-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-008-0187-2