Local field enhancement on demand based on hybrid plasmonic-dielectric directional coupler

The concept of local field enhancement using conductor-gap- dielectric-substrate (CGDS) waveguide structure is proposed. The dispersion equation is derived analytically and solved numerically. The solution of the dispersion equation reveals the anti-crossing behavior of coupled modes. the optimal gap layer thickness and the coupling length of the guided modes are obtained. The mechanism of the CGDS works as follows: Light waves are guided by conventional low-loss dielectric waveguides and, upon demand, they are transformed into highly confined plasmonic modes with strong local field enhancement, and get transformed back into low-loss dielectric modes. As an example, in a representative CGDS structure, the optimal plasmonic gap size is 17 nm, the local light intensity is found to be more than one order of magnitude stronger than the intensity of the dielectric mode at the film surface. The coupling length is only 2.1 mu m at a wavelength of 632.8 nm. Such a local field confinement on demand is expected to facilitate efficient light-matter interaction in integrated photonic devices while minimizing losses typical for plasmonic structures. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America