Optics Communications 282 (2009) 4622–4626

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Optics Communications
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/optcom

Nanoplasmonic directional couplers and Mach–Zehnder interferometers

Rami A. Wahsheh, Zhaolin Lu *, Mustafa A.G. Abushagur
Microsystems Engineering, Kate Gleason College of Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY 14623, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: We present a novel design and analysis of two nano-scale plasmonic devices: a directional coupler and a
Received 28 July 2009 Mach–Zehnder interferometer. The designs of the two devices are based on our recent work on the
Received in revised form 24 August 2009 air-gap coupler that resulted in high coupling efficiency between a dielectric waveguide and a plasmonic
Accepted 24 August 2009
waveguide. The two devices are embedded between two dielectric waveguides and operate at optical
telecom wavelengths. The overall efficiency was 37% for a 22 directional coupler switch and above
50% for the proposed designs for a Mach–Zehnder Interferometer. The efficiency in the proposed devices
PACS:
can be increased using broader plasmonic waveguides.
42.79.Fm
42.79.Gn
Ó 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Integrated optics devices
Waveguides
Surface plasmons

1. Introduction which is taken into consideration in our work. It is necessary to

Surface plasmon polariton (SPP) occurs at the interface
between metal and dielectric material due to the interaction
between the free surface electrons with the incident photons
[1–3]. Thus, light can be confined in ultra small dimensions. To
confine light further in the dielectric region, the dielectric region
is put between two metals. In this configuration, the decaying SPP
mode at each dielectric–metal interface interacts with the other,
creating a confined light in the dielectric region. The dielectric
width can be far below the diffraction limit because as the dielec-
tric width decreases the effective refractive index increases.
Reducing the width of the dielectric region improves the mode
confinement and decreases the propagation length [4,5]. The
propagation length is decreased because as the mode confine-
ment increases, the interaction with metal increases and conse-
quently the losses increase.
Several different optical circuit elements and devices such as
directional couplers [6–8] and Mach–Zehnder interferometers
(MZIs) [8,9] have been proposed because they are considered as
the platform for the optical sensors. To the best of our knowledge
none of the proposed directional couplers and MZIs in the litera-
ture has dealt with the coupling from a dielectric waveguide into
a plasmonic waveguide and back into the dielectric waveguide,
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 585 475 2106.
E-mail addresses: raw7949@rit.edu (R.A. Wahsheh), zxleen@rit.edu (Z. Lu),
maaeen@rit.edu (M.A.G. Abushagur).
use dielectric waveguides to connect the plasmonic devices to
the light source and detector so that the propagation losses due
to the metallic interaction are dramatically reduced. The size of
the directional coupler depends on the separation distance
between the two adjacent waveguides, widths of the waveguides,
the refractive index of the waveguides, the refractive index of
metal, and the operating wavelength. Zia et al. [4] found that
negligible cross talk between two adjacent metal–dielectric–metal
waveguides occurs when the separation distance between the two
waveguides is greater than 150 nm. Traditional dielectric direc-
tional couplers are used as splitters in which there is a 90° phase
shift between the two split beams. A different phase behavior
occurs in metal–dielectric–metal directional couplers in which
the phase difference between the two split beams is less than
90° [9]. Wang and his co-worker [9] attribute this phase behavior
to the interaction of the field with the complex refractive index
of metal. Unlike traditional dielectric directional couplers, plas-
monic directional couplers have wavelength coupling dependence
because the real part of the complex refractive index of metal
changes as wavelength changes [7].
In our previous work [10,11], we proposed a direct yet efficient
short plasmonic air-gap coupler (AGC) to increase the coupling
efficiency between a silicon waveguide and a silver–air–silver plas-
monic waveguide. We also proposed a splitter that delivers light
from a silicon waveguide into two plasmonic waveguides achiev-
ing a coupling efficiency of 45% for each branch. In this work, we
present two potential applications of our proposed coupler and
splitter: a directional coupler and a Mach–Zehnder interferometer.

0030-4018/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2009.08.045
 R.A. Wahsheh et al. / Optics Communications 282 (2009) 4622–4626
To this end, we used the finite-difference time-domain method
to simulate all the proposed two-dimensional structures. The mesh
size was 1 nm which is small enough to capture the change of the
field at the interface between the dielectric waveguide and the
plasmonic waveguide. The transverse magnetic mode was excited
in the dielectric waveguide and the transmitted power was mea-
sured close to the interface with the plasmonic waveguide. Per-
fectly matched layers were used to attenuate the field within its
region. The metal losses were included in our simulations. The rel-
ative permittivity of the silver at the free space wavelength
ko = 1.55 lm was 103.7 + 8.1j.
2. Plasmonic directional coupler
Fig. 1a shows the schematic of the proposed plasmonic direc-
tional coupler. It consists of two air-gap slot waveguides (AGSWs),
W1 and W2. W1 was kept connected to the air-gap coupler (AGC)
while W2 had a separation distance of 80 nm from the top of the
AGC. We studied the effect of changing the separation distance be-
tween the two AGSWs, D3, on the efficiency into W2. Fig. 1b shows
the coupling efficiency as a function of the overlapped propagation
length, L, between W1 and W2 for two cases when D3 = 10 and
220 nm. As expected, as D3 increases, the cross talk between the
two AGSWs decreases and the coupling length increases. The cou-
pling length, Lc, is defined as the propagation length needed to
completely transfer light from W1 to W2. The attenuation of the
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic of the directional coupler structure. (b) Coupling efficiency as a function of the overlapped propagation length, L, between W1 and W2 at different values
of D3. (c,d) Power density profile for D3 = 10 and 20 nm, respectively.
4623
coupled power as L increases is due to the metallic losses. Our sim-
ulation results show that Lc increased from 870 (Fig. 1c) to about
1700 nm (Fig. 1d) as D3 increased from 10 to 20 nm, respectively.
Also, our simulation results show that the cross talk between the
two AGSWs is negligible when D3 is larger than 150 nm. The cou-
pling length at which the maximum value of the transferred power
occurs is slightly off than that of the minimum value of the other
waveguide. Zhao et al. [7] attributed the position offset to the
interaction of the field with the complex refractive index of metal.
An efficient and compact directional coupler can be made when
D3 = 10 nm. The power is continuously coupled from one AGSW to
another along the propagation direction (Fig. 1c). Total power
transfer occurs when the propagation length is equal to about
870 nm. A 3 dB coupler (40% in each branch) can be made when
the propagation length is equal to 453 nm.
Fig. 2 shows a 22 directional coupler switch in which light
propagates through port 1 and exits through port 4 when total cou-
pling occurs. The spacing between the two input- (or output-)
ports is 320 nm and that between the s-shaped bends is 380 nm.
The spacing ensures no cross talk between the waveguides. The
s-shaped bends did not start from the center of the AGC to reduce
the size of the switch and the propagation losses. The trade-off is
that 4% of the coupling efficiency is lost at each interface [11].
The width of the two AGSWs is 40 nm, whereas the separation dis-
tance between them within the coupling region is 10 nm. Fig. 2b
shows the efficiency into ports 3 and 4 as a function of the coupling
4624 R.A. Wahsheh et al. / Optics Communications 282 (2009) 4622–4626

length, LD. As LD increases the power is periodically transferred be- about 16 dB (coupling efficiency inside port 4 is 37%), while the
tween the two ports. The interaction length required to achieve to- isolation is about 23 dB (cross talk in port 3). A 3 dB beam splitter
tal power transfer is equal to 910 nm (see Fig. 2c). The excess loss is can be achieved when LD is equal to about 440 nm.

Fig. 2. (a) Schematic of the switch structure. (b) Coupled power into each port as a function of LD. (c) Power density profile for the proposed switch when LD = 910 nm.

Fig. 3. (a, b) Schematic of the Fabry–Perot cavity structures with and without the AGC, respectively. (c) Efficiency as a function of the AGSW length, L.
 R.A. Wahsheh et al. / Optics Communications 282 (2009) 4622–4626 4625

Fig. 4. (a) Schematic of the proposed silver–air–silver Mach–Zehnder interferometer. (b) Output power as a function of Mach–Zehnder arm length, L. (c, d) Field distribution
and power density profile for L = 600 nm, respectively.

3. Plasmonic Mach–Zehnder interferometer
Coupling light in and out of the plasmonic waveguide can be
achieved by using one of the Fabry–Perot cavity structures as shown
in Fig. 3a and b. One structure (Fig. 3a) consists of a 40 nm-wide
AGSW embedded between two silicon waveguides. The other struc-
ture (Fig. 3b) consists of a 40 nm-wide AGSW and two AGCs embed-
ded between two silicon waveguides. The coupling efficiency into
the output silicon waveguide as a function of the AGSW length, L,
for both structures is shown in Fig. 3c. Efficiency decreases as L in-
creases because of the propagation losses due to the metallic absorp-
tion. The oscillation in the measured coupling efficiency was
dramatically reduced by using the two AGCs. Also, higher coupling
efficiency was achieved by using the two AGCs.
Based on our recent work on a 3 dB splitter [10,11], we propose
two designs for an MZI using silver–air–silver geometry. The first

Fig. 5. Schematic of the proposed three-waveguide silver–air–silver Mach–Zehnder interferometer. (b) Power field distribution.
4626 R.A. Wahsheh et al. / Optics Communications 282 (2009) 4622–4626
design is achieved by connecting two splitters back to back, as
shown in Fig. 4a. In this configuration, the input light is equally
split into each AGSW and then recombined at the output silicon
waveguide. The two AGSWs form the Mach–Zehnder propagation
arms. The separation between the AGSWs is 220 nm. The output
power was measured at the output silicon waveguide as a function
of the Mach–Zehnder arm length, L, (Fig. 4b). The oscillation in the
measured coupling efficiency is due to the Fabry–Perot cavity re-
sponse that is caused by the reflection of the plasmon mode from
each dielectric waveguide. Efficiency decreases as L increases be-
cause of the propagation losses due to the metallic absorption.
Fig. 4c and d show the electric field intensity and the power density
profile for the proposed structure. It is clear that the input light is
equally split into the two AGSWs arms and recombines at the out-
put dielectric waveguide. A potential application of this structure is
in integrated optical sensors [12], where the electromagnetic field
in the gap between the two AGSWs is strongly confined that can be
easily disturbed by an external effect.
We propose another MZI structure that consists of a splitter and
a directional coupler (a three-waveguide coupler structure), as
shown in Fig. 5a. The input light is equally split into the two AGSWs
arms and recombines at the middle AGSW before it couples into the
output dielectric waveguide. The field is highly localized at the end
of the middle MZI arm (Fig. 5b). The coupling efficiency is about 53%
when the interaction length is about 703 nm and the width of the
metal between the three AGSW is 10 nm. The length of the MZI
structure can slightly be reduced by placing the central AGSW
between the two s-shaped plasmonic waveguides.
4. Conclusion
We showed how a compact size plasmonic 22 directional cou-
pler switch and a plasmonic Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI)
can be designed. The efficiency in the former one was 37%, and that
in the latter one was above 50%. The coupling efficiency can be in-
creased by using broader plasmonic waveguide.
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