Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics (한국광학회지)

Optical Society of Korea (한국광학회)
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Characteristics of Nanoscale Modes Guided by the Total External Reflection of Surface Plasmon-Polaritons

표면 플라즈몬-폴라리톤의 외부-전반사에 의해 도파되는 나노 크기 모드의 특성

  • Received : 2011.12.21
  • Accepted : 2012.01.30
  • Published : 2012.02.25
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Abstract

Total external reflection (TER), which does not occur on a dielectric interface, is a unique feature of surface plasmon-polaritons (SPP). We propose an SPP-TER waveguide structure consisting of low-index dielectric nanocore covered with high-index dielectric on a flat metal surface. The SPP mode confined in the nanocore by the TER effect has a mode size much smaller than wavelength scale. Numerical comparison of mode characteristics between the SPP-TER waveguides and other total-internal-reflection-based waveguides such as metal or high-index dielectric nanowires show that the SPP-TER structures can possess higher modal gain for applications of nanocavity lasers.

표면 플라즈몬-폴라리톤(surface plasmon-polaritons, SPP)의 외부-전반사(total external reflection, TER) 현상은 유전체 만으로 된 경계 면에서는 일어나지 않는 SPP 만의 독특한 특성이다. 금속 면 위에 놓인 낮은 굴절률 유전체 선이 도파로 코어 역할을 하여 파장 이하의 크기를 갖는 도파모드를 형성하는 SPP-TER 도파로 구조를 제안하였다. 코어 단면적 변화에 따른 SPP-TER 모드의 전파 특성을 기존의 높은 굴절률 유전체 도파로 및 금속 도파로 구조와 비교 분석하였다. 코어의 면적이 작아짐에 따라 SPP-TER 모드의 크기가 파장보다 수십 배 작아질 수 있으면서도, 주변에 이득물질을 갖는 경우에는 기존의 도파로 구조보다도 높은 이득을 가질 수 있음을 보였다. 따라서, 제안된 SPP-TER 구조는 나노 크기의 레이저 구현에 기여하리라 기대된다.

Keywords

References

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