Efficient multi-step coupling between Si₃N₄ waveguides and CMOS plasmonic ferroelectric phase shifters in the O-band

In this paper we present a thorough simulation-based analysis for the design of multi-step couplers bridging seamlessly plasmonic barium titanate oxide (BTO) ferroelectric phase shifters and thick silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) waveguides for the O-band. The targeted plasmonic waveguides are a hybrid plasmonic waveguide (HPW) providing low propagation losses and a plasmonic metal-insulator-metal (MIM) slot waveguide offering a high confinement factor for high modulation efficiency. The proposed plasmonic platforms are formed by Copper (Cu) providing CMOS compatibility. The analysis is based on 2D-FD eigenvalue and 3D-FDTD numerical simulations targeting to identify the optimum geometries ensuring the lowest coupling losses, calculated as 1.75dB for the HPW geometry and 1.29dB for the MIM configuration. The corresponding confinement factors are 31.39% and 56.2% for the HPW and MIM waveguides, respectively.