Evanescent field engineering to reduce cross-talk in pattern-free suspended graphene-based plasmonic waveguides using nano-strips

Abstract

Suppression of the cross-talk between neighboring photonic components has been considered one of the most efficient methods for increasing the packing density of photonic integrated circuits. In this study, an effective cross-talk reduction approach is developed for plasmonic waveguides. Firstly, the mode characteristics of the waveguide are investigated, and then two silicon strips are placed beside the two adjacent waveguides. The mechanism of the cross-talk suppression method highly relies on the evanescent waves. The designed strips in this study manipulate the wave vectors of surface plasmon polaritons. The tangential component of the wave vector is conserved along the interface, while the perpendicular component in the surroundings can be equal to zero or imaginary, leading to evanescent waves. Placing the strips increases the perpendicular component of the wave vector in the surroundings, resulting in less cross-talk. So, the coupling length of the waveguide with the strips at the wavelength of 10 μm increases up to 345 μm which is 25 times longer than that in its non-strip counterpart. Also, the figure-of-merit and loss of the designed structure are up to 1000 and 0.13 dB/μm at a chemical potential of 0.8 eV and a wavelength of 10 μm, respectively. So, high figure-of-merit and low loss along with long coupling length are the interesting features of the designed plasmonic waveguide which propose promising structures with high performance in the near-infrared.