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Nanofocusing in a metal–insulator–metal gap plasmon waveguide with a three-dimensional linear taper

Nature Photonics volume 6, pages 838–844 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The development of techniques for efficiently confining photons on the deep sub-wavelength spatial scale will revolutionize scientific research and engineering practices. The efficient coupling of light into extremely small nanofocusing devices has been a major challenge in on-chip nanophotonics because of the need to overcome various loss mechanisms and the on-chip nanofabrication challenges. Here, we demonstrate experimentally the achievement of highly efficient nanofocusing in an Au–SiO2–Au gap plasmon waveguide using a carefully engineered three-dimensional taper. The dimensions of the SiO2 layer, perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation, taper linearly below 100 nm. Our simulations suggest that the three-dimensional linear-tapering approach could focus 830 nm light into a 2 × 5 nm2 area with ≤3 dB loss and an intensity enhancement of 3.0 × 104. In a two-photon luminescence measurement, our device achieved an intensity enhancement of 400 within a 14 × 80 nm2 area, and a transmittance of 74%.

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Figure 1: The 3D NPC.
Figure 2: Simulation of a 3D NPC with an infinite tip.
Figure 3: Simulation of a 3D NPC with a finite tip.
Figure 4: Fabricated 3D NPC and optical characterization setup.
Figure 5: Optical characterization of the 3D NPC.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank X. Meng for gold evaporation and J. Dionne for her continuous encouragement. This work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Science & Technology (S&T) Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) programme, the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Engineering and Applied Sciences (EAS) division of California Institute of Technology.

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Author notes

  1. Hyuck Choo and Myung-Ki Kim: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Moore Laboratory, Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    Hyuck Choo & Myung-Ki Kim

  2. Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences, Cory Hall, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Myung-Ki Kim, Matteo Staffaroni, Tae Joon Seok, Jeffrey Bokor, Ming C. Wu & Eli Yablonovitch

  3. Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Jeffrey Bokor, Stefano Cabrini & P. James Schuck

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Contributions

H.C. fabricated the 3D NPC devices, performed the experiments, and carried out TPPL measurements. S.C. and P.J.S. assisted with device fabrication and measurement collection. M.K. conducted the simulations and, with H.C., analysed the experimental data. M.S. and T.J.S. assisted with the simulations. J.B., M.W. and E.Y. provided in-depth discussion of the project. H.C. and M.K. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hyuck Choo or Eli Yablonovitch.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Choo, H., Kim, MK., Staffaroni, M. et al. Nanofocusing in a metal–insulator–metal gap plasmon waveguide with a three-dimensional linear taper. Nature Photon 6, 838–844 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2012.277

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