Silver nanowire based plasmon propagation, coupling and splitting at 1.55 µm wavelength

We experimentally demonstrate silver nanowire based plasmonic devices at optical communication wavelength 1.55 µm. The plasmon propagation loss in a 300 nm diameter silver nanowire is measured to be 0.3 dB/µm. Two types of plasmonic functional devices based on the coupling between two silver nanowires, nano-couplers and nano-splitters, are realized.