Easy-to-Design Nano-Coupler Between MetalInsulatorMetal

Plasmonic and Dielectric Slab Waveguides

Hossein Hodaei & Mohsen Rezaei & Mehdi Miri &
Meisam Bahadori & Ali Eshaghian & Khashayar Mehrany
Received: 23 September 2012 / Accepted: 25 February 2013 / Published online: 8 March 2013
#Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract An easy-to-design single-stub nano-coupler is pro-
posed to increase the direct coupling efficiency between
metalinsulatormetal (MIM) plasmonic and high-index di-
electric waveguides. The modal reflection and transmission
from the junction are exploited to provide a circuit description
for the structure. The return loss of direct coupling is then
minimized by loading the MIM waveguide with a single stub.
Numerical examples are given, and the accuracy of the model
is examined via finite-difference time-domain method.
Keywords Metalinsulatormetal waveguides
.
Waveguide
junction
.
Equivalent circuit
.
Power coupling
Introduction
The recent years have witnessed an ever-increasing interest
in hybrid photonicplasmonic circuitry, seeing that the com-
bination of small-footprint plasmonic components and low-
loss photonic waveguides keep Moore's law on track [1].
Despite the abundance of geometrical configurations pro-
posed to exploit the benefits of surface plasmon polariton
excitation in the pursuit of nano-scale integration, particular
attention is directed toward the CMOS compatible planar
metalinsulatormetal (MIM) arrangement [2]. Not only has
the MIM structure successfully exhibited a wide range of
applications including waveguide couplers [3], power split-
ters [4, 5], filters [6, 7], absorption switches [8], Y-shaped
combiners [9], and resonators [10, 11], it has been enjoying
a rather large end-fire coupling efficiency to silicon wave-
guide at the optical telecommunication wavelengths [12].
Given that there is a large difference between the sizes of
MIM and Si waveguides, the considerable coupling efficien-
cy in the interfacing of the plasmonic side to the photonic
one is fortuitous. To make sure that the matter is not left at
fate's hand, therefore, a coupler is needed to funnel light
from the photonic to the plasmonic side [13].
As for the special case of direct coupling between MIMand
Si waveguides, several compact couplers are already proposed
in the literature [12, 14, 15]. Since they all rely on some kind
of optimization process and thus cannot be easily designed, a
new coupler that can be designed by following a straightfor-
ward semi-analytical approach is warmly welcome.
In this paper, an easy-to-design stub-tuned coupler is intro-
duced to enhance the direct coupling efficiency between sili-
con and MIM waveguides. The success and simplicity of the
proposed scheme are indebted to the following two facts.
First, the share of the return loss in decreasing the coupling
efficiency is substantial. Second, the field profile of the fun-
damental transverse magnetic (TM) mode in MIM wave-
guides is strongly similar to the transverse electromagnetic
(TEM) mode in parallel plate waveguides with perfect electric
conductor (PEC) boundaries [16]. Thanks to this latter feature,
the standard techniques of microwave engineering are appli-
cable in loss reduction by coupling the MIM waveguide to a
H. Hodaei (*)
:
M. Rezaei
:
M. Miri
:
M. Bahadori
:
A. Eshaghian
:
K. Mehrany
Department of Electrical Engineering,
Sharif University of Technology, 11365-9363, Tehran, Iran
e-mail: hossein.hodaie@gmail.com
K. Mehrany
e-mail: Mehrany@sharif.edu
Plasmonics (2013) 8:11231128
DOI 10.1007/s11468-013-9519-9
perpendicular stub [17]. All that needs to be done is to find the
transmission line model of the structure, and the return loss
can be minimized straightforwardly. To this end, the effects of
higher-order modes inevitably excited at the plasmonicdi-
electric junction are to be included in the model. This is carried
out here by using the back-scattered field at the plasmonic
dielectric junction. The dielectric waveguide is replaced by the
appropriate load impedance enforcing the correct modal re-
flection at the MIMdielectric waveguide junction. The trans-
mission line representing the plasmonic side of the structure is
then terminated by the thus obtained impedance, and a simple
model is provided for minimizing the return loss. Such a
model is valid whenever certain reasonable conditions are
met.
The structure of the paper is as follows. In the next
section, the structure of the proposed coupler is introduced
together with its circuit model viz. a stubbed transmission
line terminated by complex scalar impedance representing
the dielectric waveguide. The imaginary part of the imped-
ance stands for the reactive evanescent modes, and its real
part represents the guided and radiation modes. In the
Minimized Return Loss in the Proposed Coupler section,
the return loss at the interface of the MIM and dielectric
waveguides is minimized. Thanks to the simplicity of the
model, the wanted parameters of the proposed coupler are
extracted analytically. The numerical results are then
presented in the Numercial Examples section, where the
efficiency of the proposed strategy in increasing the direct
coupling between MIM and silicon waveguides is demon-
strated at the near-infrared wavelengths. The obtained re-
sults are justified by using the finite-difference time-domain
(FDTD) method. Finally, the conclusions are made in the
last section.
The MIMDielectric Coupler
The direct coupling efficiency between the MIM and dielec-
tric waveguides is to be increased by reduction of the return
loss through loading the MIM waveguide with a stub of
appropriate length inserted at the appropriate place. This is
schematically shown in Fig. 1a, where a stub of length d
1
and width W
1
is placed at distance L
1
from the junction
between the MIM and dielectric waveguides whose widths
are denoted by W
1
and W
2
, respectively. Thanks to the
strong similarity between the fundamental TM mode of the
MIM waveguide to the TEM mode of parallel plate wave-
guides with PEC boundaries, the plasmonic side of the
structure can be easily yet accurately modeled by a stubbed
transmission line if W
1
is small enough to ensure that
higher-order propagating modes are all below cutoff [17].
Modeling the dielectric side of the structure is not that much
easy and has never been carried out before. Still, it is not
impossible because the electromagnetic behavior at the dis-
continuity between the MIM and dielectric waveguides can
be explained in terms of lumped circuit elements if L
1
is
large enough to ensure that the excited higher-order modes
die away before they can reach the stub. Under these two
reasonable conditions; i.e., small enough W
1
and large
enough L
1
, the fundamental mode reflection from the
MIM to the dielectric waveguide can be used to replace
the junction by a scalar load which should terminate the
transmission line representing the stubbed MIM waveguide.
This is shown in Fig. 1b, where the characteristic impedance
of the plasmonic transmission line, the load impedance
terminating the stub section, and the load impedance
representing the junction are denoted by Z
0
, Z
l
, and Z
d
,
respectively. The stub section is placed at distance L
1
from
Z
d
and has a length of d
1
.
Thanks to the maturity of microwave models for stubbed
MIM waveguides, Z
0
, and Z
l
are known to be as follows
[17]:
Z
0

W
1
b
w"
1
Z
l

"
i
"
m
_
Z
0
2
where is the propagation constant of the fundamental TM
mode in a MIM waveguide whose width is W
1
, is the
angular frequency of the light,
i
and
m
are the permittiv-
ities of the insulator and metallic regions in the MIM
waveguide.
Fig. 1 The proposed plasmonicdielectric waveguide coupler (a) to-
gether with its corresponding circuit model (b)
1124 Plasmonics (2013) 8:11231128
Since the load impedance Z
d
should account for the back
modal reflection at the junction, the following equation
should be satisfied:
Z
d
Z
0
1
d
1
d
3
where
d
is the fundamental TM mode back reflection
coefficient at the junction.
Figure 2 shows the MIMdielectric waveguide junction at
which the modal reflection coefficient
d
should be calculat-
ed. Although
d
can be calculated by applying the standard
mode-matching technique [18], we have employed the FDTD
method to extract the near-infrared spectrumof
d
and Z
d
with
a single simulation. The dispersion of the metallic region is
approximated by the well-known Drude theory [19], while the
dispersion of the dielectric region is neglected. Once the time-
domain transverse electromagnetic fields are calculated, the
fast Fourier transform algorithm is employed, and the
frequency-domain transverse electric and magnetic fields at
the junction, i.e., E
t
(x, ) and H
t
(x, ), are obtained. The mode
orthogonality in the MIM waveguide is then employed to
obtain the modal reflection coefficient;
d
[20]:

d

_
x
E
t
x; w H
*
p
x; w dx
_
x
E
*
p
x; w H
t
x; w dx
_
x
E
t
x; w H
*
p
x; w dx
_
x
E
*
p
x; w H
t
x; w dx
4
where E
p
(x, ) and H
p
(x, ) are the transverse components of
normalized electric and magnetic fields of the MIM funda-
mental TM mode, respectively.
Since the Ohmic dissipation and plasmonic radiation at
the vicinity of the junction can both be neglected, the active
power delivered to the real part of the load impedance, Z
d
, is
either coupled to the guided dielectric mode or is lost to the
radiation modes on the dielectric side. The load impedance
Z
d
, representing the dielectric waveguide, can then be writ-
ten as:
Z
d
w R
g
w R
r
w jX w 5
where R
g
(), R
r
(), and X() stand for the share of guided,
radiation, and evanescent modes, respectively.
Assuming that the dielectric waveguide is single mode,
the ratio of R
g
to R
g
+R
r
is equal to the ratio of the power
coupled to the fundamental guided mode, P
g
, to the overall
power delivered to the dielectric waveguide, P
t
. The former
can be easily obtained by using the mode orthogonality [20]
and the latter by Poynting's theorem:
P
g
P
t

_
x
E
t
x; w H
*
d
x; w E
*
d
x; w H
t
x; w
_
dx

2
2 Re
_
x
E
t
x; w H
*
t
x; w dx
_ _ 6
where E
d
(x, ) and H
d
(x, ) are the normalized transverse
electric and magnetic fields of the dielectric waveguide
fundamental TM mode, respectively.
Given that the excited higher-order plasmonic modes die
way before they reach the stub, the P
g
over P
t
ratio is not
altered by the presence of the single stub. The maximum
achievable coupling efficiency obtained via our proposed
coupler is therefore limited by the abovementioned ratio.
Numerical simulations for the proposed coupler when the
dielectric waveguide is made of silicon, however, shows that
not only is the maximum achievable coupling efficiency con-
siderable (more than 70 %), the increase of the direct coupling
efficiency after minimizing the return loss by applying the
appropriate single stub is significant.
It is worth noting that the significant increase of the direct
coupling efficiency from its original level, i.e., (1|
d
|
2
)P
g
/P
t
to its maximum achievable level, i.e., P
g
/P
t
, is not bought at
the expense of heavy numerical calculation. All that is to be
numerically calculated is E
t
(x, ) and H
t
(x, ) at the
plasmonic dielectric junction shown in Fig. 2. The return loss
is then analytically minimized by using the circuit model in
Fig. 1b, and the coupling efficiency is boosted. The details of
howthe yet unknown d
1
and L
1
are extracted to ensure that the
reflection is minimized are given in the next section.
Minimized Return Loss in the Proposed Coupler
Using the series impedance model for the stub section in the
MIM waveguide, the schematic of the circuit model for the
proposed coupler is as shown in Fig. 3. In this figure, the series
impedance for the stub section is denoted by Z
stub
[17]:
Z
stub
Z
0
Z
l
jZ
0
tanbd
1

Z
0
jZ
l
tanbd
1

7
Fig. 2 Plasmonicdielectric waveguide junction
Plasmonics (2013) 8:11231128 1125
To ensure that the return loss is minimized, the characteristic
impedance of the MIM waveguide, Z
0
, should be as close as
possible to the input impedance of the proposed coupler, Z
in
:
Z
in
Z
stub
Z
0
Z
d
jZ
0
tan bL
1

Z
0
jZ
d
tan bL
1

8
The characteristic impedance of the MIM waveguide, Z
0
,
becomes real if we neglect the Ohmic dissipation at the
plasmonic side of the structure. Under such a condition,
the input impedance of the proposed coupler, Z
in
, can be
made equal to Z
0
. Here, the imaginary part of the propaga-
tion constant of the fundamental TM mode in the MIM
waveguide is zeroed, and L
1
is obtained by solving Z
in
=Z
0
:
L
1

1
2 Re b f g
2mp cos
1

d
j j
d
_
9
where m is an arbitrary integer. Given that large values of m
lengthen L
1
and thus make the Ohmic dissipation more
significant, the shortest positive value of L
1
is the best
choice unless it is so short that the contribution of evanes-
cent higher-order modes becomes important.
Along the same line, the imaginary part of
m
is neglected
and the length of the stub section, d
1
, is obtained by solving
Z
in
=Z
0
:
d
1

1
Re b f g
mp tan
1
2 Im x f g

"i
Re "m f g
_
1 x j j
2
2 Re x f g
_ _
1 x j j
2
2 Re x f g 2

"i
Re "m f g
_
Im x f g
_
_
_
_
_
_
_

_
_

_
10
x
*
d
exp 2j Re b f gL
1
11
Once again, the shortest positive value of d
1
is usually the
best choice.
Fig. 3 The simplified circuit model for the proposed structure
Fig. 4 The direct coupling efficiency as a function of the silicon
waveguide thickness with (solid line) and without (dashed line) the
proposed single-stub coupler
Fig. 5 Power spectra of the proposed single-stub coupler: the coupling
efficiency (solid line), return loss (dashed line), radiation loss (dotted
line), and Ohmic dissipation (dasheddotted line) for (a) W
2
=300 nm
and (b) W
2
=350 nm
1126 Plasmonics (2013) 8:11231128
Numerical Examples
In this section, the proposed strategy is followed to design
plasmonic single-stub nano-couplers. The plasmonic MIM
waveguide is made by sandwiching an empty layer (
i
=1) of
thickness W
1
=50 nm between two silver half spaces. The
well-known Drude's model is employed to estimate the
permittivity of the silver [19]:
"
m
"
1

w
p
2
w w jg
12
where
p
=1.3810
16
rad/s, =2.7310
13
rad/s, and

=3.7
are the plasma frequency, the collision rate, and permittivity
of silver at very large frequencies, respectively. The dielec-
tric waveguide is made of a silicon layer surrounded by the
empty space. The permittivity of the silicon is
d
=11.56 at
the near-infrared frequencies. This particular arrangement is
much like what is presented in [12].
The direct coupling efficiency at the free space wave-
length 1
0
=1.55 m between the abovementioned MIM
waveguide and the symmetric silicon waveguide with dif-
ferent thicknesses W
2
, i.e., the arrangement of Fig. 2, is
shown in Fig. 4. The maximum coupling efficiency is ob-
served when W
2
=340 nm. Since the direct coupling effi-
ciency can be further increased when the return loss is
minimized, the maximum achievable coupling efficiency
for the zero return loss is also plotted to show how much
improvement is expected by pursuing the proposed strategy.
This figure shows that the coupling efficiency of about 90 %
is achievable when W
2
=370 nm.
Furthermore, comparison of solid and dashed curves in
Fig. 4 reveals that the direct coupling efficiency can be
increased by up to 2030 %. This can be achieved at
almost no cost by using the closed form expressions (9)
and (10) to find the appropriate L
1
and d
1
of the proposed
coupler.
In this section, two different scenarios are further consid-
ered in more detail. In the first scenario, W
2
is set at 300 nm,
which approximately results in having the minimum TM
modal width for the silicon waveguide. To ensure that the
return loss is minimized at the free space wavelength 1
0
=
1.55 m, Eqs. (9), and (10) are employed, and L
1
and d
1
are
found to be 232 and 416 nm, respectively. The obtained
direct coupling efficiency of the proposed single-stub cou-
pler is shown by a solid line as a function of the free space
wavelength in Fig. 5a. The proposed coupler has a rather
large bandwidth of about 200 nm. The return loss is also
plotted in this figure. It is obvious that the return loss plays
the vital role in decreasing the direct coupling efficiency
except for those wavelengths at which the stub section de-
stroys the back reflection successfully. The Ohmic dissipa-
tion and the share of the power lost to the radiation modes of
the silicon waveguide are also plotted in this figure. As
expected, neither of these two factors gets the upper hand
in deteriorating the direct coupling efficiency. In the second
scenario, W
2
is set to 350 nm, which approximately results
in achieving the maximum level of coupling efficiency
when a single-stub coupler is used. Along the same line,
L
1
and d
1
are found to be 257 and 414 nm, respectively.
Similarly, the obtained direct coupling efficiency, the return
loss, Ohmic dissipation, and the share of power lost to the
radiation modes of the silicon waveguides are all plotted in
Fig. 5b. Once again, the proposed coupler has a rather large
bandwidth of about 200 nm, and return loss is the primary
factor in decreasing the direct coupling efficiency.
Conclusion
The possibility of using equivalent circuit models for MIM
plasmonic waveguides is exploited in this paper to minimize
the return loss in direct coupling between MIM plasmonic
and high-index dielectric slab waveguides. The modal
reflection and transmission coefficients at the plasmonic
dielectric junction are calculated, and a simple lumped cir-
cuit element description is provided to model the junction.
The MIM waveguide is then loaded by a single stub, and
thus, the return loss of direct coupling from the plasmonic to
the dielectric side of the structure is zeroed at a certain
frequency. Thereby, the coupling efficiency is increased.
Since closed form expressions are provided for the specifi-
cations of the proposed single-stub coupler, the improve-
ment of the coupling efficiency is not bought at the expense
of heavy computations. No optimization process is needed.
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