Figures of merit for surface plasmon waveguides

Three figures of merit are proposed as quality measures for surface plasmon waveguides. They are defined as benefit-to-cost ratios where the benefit is confinement and the cost is attenuation. Three different ways of measuring confinement are considered, leading to three figures of merit. One of the figures of merit is connected to the quality factor. The figures of merit were then used to assess and compare the wavelength response of three popular 1-D surface plasmon waveguides: the single metal-dielectric interface, the metal slab bounded by dielectric and the dielectric slab bounded by metal. Closed form expressions are given for the figures of merit of the single metal-dielectric interface. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.