Nanofocusing of light using three-dimensional plasmonic mode conversion

Efficient nanofocusing of light into a gap plasmon waveguide using three-dimensional mode conversion in a strip plasmonic directional coupler is proposed. Unlike conventional nanofocusing using tapering structures, a plasmonic directional coupler converts E(z)-type odd mode energy into E(y)-type gap plasmon mode by controlling phase mismatch and gap spacing. The simulation result shows the maximum electric field intensity increases up to 58.1 times the input intensity, and 17.3% of the light is focused on the nano gap region.