A robust and efficient model for transmission of surface plasmon polaritons onto metal-insulator-metal apertures

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple, accurate, and efficient model for predicting the transmission of surface plasmon polaritons in metal-insulator-metal waveguides with apertures, outperforming existing models and validated by FDTD simulations.

Contribution

The paper presents a new model using magnetic current density and Green's function to accurately predict SPP transmission in MIM waveguides, including complex multilayer structures.

Findings

Model matches FDTD results closely.

Outperforms existing approximation methods.

Applicable to symmetric and non-symmetric MIMs.

Abstract

A simple yet accurate model for the transmission of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in a finite metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguide to the sides of the apertures is proposed and demonstrated to be more accurate than available models. It is as simple as using a magnetic current density across the plane of the aperture whose value is defined by SPPs with any number of modes in the waveguide through the equivalence principle. Then, the generated SPPs on the both sides of the aperture are extracted from the convolution integral of the equivalent current density and Green's function. As a result, the model provides the transmission coefficients of SPPs in the MIM to the side walls of the aperture accurately and efficiently; not only for symmetric MIMs with a single isolating layer but also for non-symmetric ones with multi-layered insulating materials. The results are in very good agreement with those obtained by the FDTD method and better than the other approximations available in literature for a wide range of aperture widths.