Fabrication method of a low-loss plasmonic waveguide containing both plasmonic-friendly and plasmonic-unfriendly metals

TL;DR

This paper presents a fabrication method that significantly reduces propagation loss in plasmonic waveguides containing both plasmon-friendly and unfriendly metals, enhancing device performance.

Contribution

The authors developed and experimentally demonstrated a fabrication technique that decreases plasmonic propagation loss below 1 dB in mixed-metal waveguides.

Findings

Loss reduction below 1 dB per device

Effective optical confinement optimization

Applicable to both plasmon-friendly and unfriendly metals

Abstract

Fabrication technology, which allows a substantial decrease of the plasmonic propagation loss for both plasmon-friendly metals like Au, Cu or Al and plasmon-unfriendly metals like Co, Fe or Cr, has been developed and experimentally demonstrated. Optimization of the optical confinement is used to reduce the propagation loss below 1 dB per plasmonic device.