Integrated Nanoplasmonic Splitter

Rami A. Wahsheh1*, Zhaolin Lu2, and Mustafa A. G. Abushagur2

1
Communications Engineering Department, King Abdullah II School of Engineering, Princess Sumaya University for Technology,
Al- Jubaiha, Amman 11941, Jordan
2
Microsystems Engineering, Kate Gleason College of Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York
14623, USA
*Corresponding author: r.wahsheh@psut.edu.jo

Abstract—Novel design and fabrication steps of an
ultracompact 1×2 plasmonic splitter are presented. The
proposed splitter operates at broad frequency range. The
theoretical result at 1550 nm is approximately 25% for each
branch.
I. INTRODUCTION
Splitters are used in optical circuit elements and devices
couples from the silicon waveguide into the plasmonic
silicon-slot waveguide and then into the plasmonic air-slot
waveguide. The reverse process happens when light couples
from the plasmonic air-slot waveguide into the splitter
branches. The field inside the plasmonic air-slot waveguide
matches that of the plasmonic silicon-slot waveguide [5,6].
Output Output
#1 #2

because they are considered as the platform for optical

sensors. In our previous work [1], we proposed a splitter that Ls
Ls
delivers light from a silicon waveguide into two plasmonic
waveguides achieving a coupling efficiency of 45% for each 40nm
branch. The potential applications of our proposed splitter in
a directional coupler and Mach-Zehnder interferometer are 1000nm
presented in [2]. The proposed plasmonic splitter in [1] was
difficult to fabricate due to the difficulty in placing the
plasmonic air-gap coupler at the interface with the silicon Ls Ls
waveguide. In our current work, we present the design and
fabrication of a 1×2 plasmonic splitter. Input
Si
The commercial software FullWAVE from RSOFT is Au
Air 300nm
used to measure the coupling efficiency and the spectrum
response of the fabricated plasmonic splitter. The transmitted (a)
power is measured by a power monitor that is placed in the
0.3
second dielectric waveguide away from the interface with
the plasmonic waveguide. The coupling efficiency is
calculated by normalizing the transmitted power with respect 0.25
Normalized Power

to the input power. Gold is used in the fabrication of

plasmonic waveguides. The metal losses are included in our 0.2
simulations.
0.15
II. PLASMONIC SPLITTER DESIGN
Figure 1(a) shows the schematic of the proposed
0.1
plasmonic splitter. The width of the silicon waveguides is
300 nm and that of the air-slot plasmonic waveguides is 40
nm. To change the mode size adiabatically, the silicon 0.05
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
waveguides are tapered at each end of the plasmonic air-slot L
S
waveguide [3,4]. It is almost impossible to couple light into (b)
the plasmonic air-slot waveguides without milling part of the
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic of the plasmonic splitter device. (b)
silicon waveguides at each end of the plasmonic air-slot Coupling efficiency in branch # 1 as a function of the silicon
waveguides. As shown in Fig. 1(b), milling part of the air-slot waveguide’s length, Ls.
silicon waveguides, Ls, enhances the coupling efficiency into
As shown in Fig. 2, the proposed plasmonic splitter can
each branch. We found that the coupling efficiency for each
operate at a broad frequency range from 1260 nm to 1620
branch increased from approximately 10% to approximately
nm in which the coupling efficiency for each branch is
25% when Ls=160 nm. This coupling enhancement is due to
maximized for λo=1450 nm.
the creation of the plasmonic silicon-slot waveguide that
resulted from milling part of the silicon waveguides. Light

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 [3] A. Mekis and J. D. Joannopoulos, “Tapered couplers for
0.28 efficient interfacing between dielectric and photonic crystal
0.27 waveguides,” Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 19, pp.
861-865, June 2001.
0.26 [4] R. A. Wahsheh and M. A. G. Abushagur, “Compact and ultra-
Normalized Power

0.25
low-loss planar photonic crystal taper,” Microwave and
Optical Technology Letters, vol. 52, pp. 1454-1459, June
0.24 2010.
0.23
[5] R. A. Wahsheh, Z. Lu, and M. A. G. Abushagur,
“Nanoplasmonic air-slot coupler: Design and fabrication,” in
0.22 Frontiers in Optics, OSA Technical Digest (CD) (Optical
Society of America, 2012), paper FTh4A, October 2012.
0.21
[6] V. R. Almeida, Q. Xu, C. Barrios, and M. Lipson, “Guiding
0.2 and confining light in void nanostructure,” Optics Letters, vol.
1300 1350 1400 1450 1500 1550 1600
Wavelength [nm] 29, pp. 1209-1211, June 2004.

Fig. 2. Spectrum of the plasmonic splitter for each branch.

III. PLASMONIC SPLITTER FABRICATION STEPS

The scanning electron microscope image of the
fabricated plasmonic splitter is shown in Fig. 3. The
thickness of the silicon and plasmonic waveguides is 250 nm.
The electron-beam lithography was used three times during
the fabrication process: the first time was used to define the
alignment marks, the second time was used to place the
silicon waveguides at specific locations from the marks, and
the third time was used to define the regions in which gold to
be deposited. The focused ion beam was used to define the
plasmonic air-slot waveguides. We are currently in the
process of testing the fabricated devices. The experimental
results will be published in a subsequent paper.

Fig. 3. Scanning electron microscope image of the fabricated plasmonic

splitter.

REFERENCES
[1] R. A. Wahsheh, Z. Lu, and M. A. G. Abushagur,
“Nanoplasmonic couplers and splitters,” Optics Express, vol.
17, pp. 19033-19040, October 2009.
[2] R. A. Wahsheh, Z. Lu, and M. A. G. Abushagur,
“Nanoplasmonic directional couplers and Mach-Zehnder
interferometers,” Optics Communications, vol. 282, pp. 4622-
4626, September 2009.

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