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Updated: Jul 20, 2026

Fabrication And Characterization Of Photonic Crystal Slow Light Waveguides And Cavities
Published on: November 30, 2012
Highly confined photon transport in subwavelength metallic slot waveguides
J A Dionne1, H J Lezec, Harry A Atwater
1Thomas J. Watson Laboratories of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, M.C. 128-95, Pasadena, California 91125, USA. jdionne@caltech.edu
Abstract:
We report experimental realization of subwavelength slot waveguides that exhibit both micrometer-range propagation and high spatial confinement of light. Attention is given to rectangular waveguides with a Si3N4 core and Ag cladding; core thicknesses of 50-100 nm and widths of 250 nm - 10 microm are explored. Propagation lengths of approximately 5lambda are achieved with light confined to lateral and transverse dimensions of approximately lambda/5 and approximately lambda/2, respectively. This unique combination of light localization and propagation is achieved via interacting surface plasmons, which produce short modal wavelengths and strong field confinement at each metal/dielectric interface.
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