Vertical plasmonic resonance coupler

Efficient wavelength-selective coupling of lights between sub-wavelength plasmonic waveguides and free space is theoretically investigated. The idea is based on a new type of vertical resonance coupling devices built on plasmonic metal/insulator/metal (MIM) waveguides. The device structure consists of a vertical grating coupler in a resonance cavity formed by two distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). With the metal loss included, maximum coupling efficiency around 50% can be obtained at the 1550 nm wavelength with a filtering 3 dB bandwidth around 20 nm (7 nm for the lossless case), demonstrating the feasibility of the idea for achieving high efficiency wavelength-selective vertical coupling through optical resonance. By utilizing this coupler, a plasmonic add-drop device is proposed and theoretically demonstrated. This kind of compact wavelength selective coupling devices shall have the potential to open up a new avenue of photonics circuitry at nanoscale.