Abstract
The three-dimensional (3-D) beam-propagation method is applied to the analysis of a novel transverse
electric/transverse magnetic (TE/TM) wave splitter using a light-guiding metal (Ag) line with an embedded dielectric
(SiO<sub>2</sub>) waveguide. Before analyzing the splitter, a
mode converter with a tapered metal is designed to smoothly convert the guided mode of an embedded waveguide into
the surface plasmon-polariton (SPP) mode, and vice versa. After demonstrating the effectiveness of a converter
consisting of a two-step linear taper, the performance of the splitter is evaluated. To obtain a high coupling
efficiency, the wavefront mismatch of the SPP mode is compensated for. In addition, a TE-pass polarizer is added to
the TE output waveguide, reducing the undesirable TM wave. In contrast to the long device length of a conventional
branch-type splitter (> 1000 μm), the
present splitter is found to have a noticeably short device length of less than 200 μm, although a loss of about 3 dB is observed for the TM wave. The crosstalk
and the extinction ratio are, respectively, evaluated to be less than -15 dB and more than 15 dB for a branching angle of 16±
2°
at wavelengths of 1.31 and 1.55 μm.
© 2007 IEEE
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