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Plasmonic Bidirectional/Unidirectional Wavelength Splitter Based on Metal-Dielectric-Metal Waveguides

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Abstract

A plasmonic bidirectional/unidirectional wavelength splitter based on asymmetric metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) waveguides is proposed. In the splitter, owing to the interference effects caused by the unequal phase delays from the two asymmetric arms of MDM waveguides, surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) will only transmit through the output port that is close to the arm where constructive interference arises. The transmission wavelengths can be linearly modulated by changing the lengths of the arms. Since two different SPP modes are obtained in two output ports, respectively, the structure can act as a bidirectional wavelength splitter. Interestingly, both SPP modes can be manipulated to transmit through the same port by adding a notch in one arm. In this case, the notch must simultaneously locate at the anti-node and at the node of the magnetic fields of two SPP modes respectively. As a result, additional phase delay for the specific mode will be produced by the notch, but without any impact on the other mode. Then, the propagation directions of both modes will turn to be identical. High transmission and high cross-talk isolation are investigated for all the cases by using the finite-difference time-domain method.

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Acknowledgments

The work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants No. 61405039 and No. 61475037, Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China under Grant No. 2014A030310300, the State Key Lab of Optical Technologies for Micro-Engineering and Nano-Fabrication of China, the Foundation for Distinguished Young Talents in Higher Education of Guangdong, China under Grant No. 2014KQNCX066, the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under Grant No. 2014M552173, and the Research Fund of Guangdong University of Technology under Grant No. 13ZK0387.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

The content of this manuscript does not have any potential conflict of interest with anyone. This research does not involve in any human participant or animal. No part of this manuscript has been published or submitted elsewhere. Also, all the authors have given their approvals to the submission of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, China

    Kunhua Wen, Yihua Hu, Li Chen, Jinyun Zhou, Liang Lei & Ziming Meng

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  1. Kunhua Wen
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  2. Yihua Hu
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  3. Li Chen
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  4. Jinyun Zhou
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  5. Liang Lei
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  6. Ziming Meng
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Correspondence to Kunhua Wen.

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Wen, K., Hu, Y., Chen, L. et al. Plasmonic Bidirectional/Unidirectional Wavelength Splitter Based on Metal-Dielectric-Metal Waveguides. Plasmonics 11, 71–77 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-015-0021-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-015-0021-4

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