Nonlinear plasmonic couplers

Abstract

In this work we have numerically investigated by employing the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method the coupling between two metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) plasmonic waveguides supporting symmetric forward propagating fundamental modes, one of them presenting a Kerr non-linearity. A coupling analysis is performed in order to investigate the all - optical switching properties of this directional coupler. This analysis was performed for optimization of this coupler in terms of length, modal characteristics of the waveguides as well as the input power.