Date of Award

8-31-2016

Document Type

Campus Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Physics, Applied

First Advisor

Walter Buchwald

Second Advisor

Kim Hamad Schifferli

Third Advisor

Matthew Bell

Abstract

The efficient coupling of single-mode optical fields, bound by dielectrics, to single-mode optical fields guided as plasmon modes are investigated through the use of a tapered dielectric mode convertor. The metallic taper structure of maximum taper length 400μm producing a minimum taper angle of 1° was used as an initial design based on the underlying dielectric waveguide width of 7.9μm. The increase in effective index along the length of the taper as the underlying dielectric waveguide becomes completely covered with the plasmon host is exploited to determine the structures over all reflective properties. Reflectivity as a function of taper length is determined using the transfer matrix method implemented in Mathematica. It was found that the reflection from an abrupt interface with a dielectric waveguide effective index of 3.82 and a plasmon mode supporting waveguide of 3.80, was reduced from 23% to less than 3% from using the as designed taper mode convertor. Such convertors can find use in technology which requires high near fields provided by plasmon modes.

Comments

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