Mode confinement enhanced by exploiting epsilon-near-zero supercoupling in a mimic transverse electric hybrid phonon polariton waveguide

Michael F. Finch; Delroy D. Rebello; Brian A. Lail

doi:10.1117/1.OE.58.6.067107

28 June 2019 Mode confinement enhanced by exploiting epsilon-near-zero supercoupling in a mimic transverse electric hybrid phonon polariton waveguide

Michael F. Finch, Delroy D. Rebello, Brian A. Lail

Author Affiliations +

Optical Engineering, Vol. 58, Issue 6, 067107 (June 2019). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.58.6.067107

Abstract

New capabilities in mid- to long-wave infrared sensing and telecommunications require ultracompact waveguides that support long propagation lengths. Hybrid waveguides supporting the coupling between a dielectric strip-waveguide mode (long propagation) and a surface polariton mode (tightly confined mode) are promising candidates. Here, an infrared (λ₀ = 10.6 μm) hybrid waveguide design is presented that achieves enhanced mode confinement but with minimal impact on propagation distances. Modal area confinement is enhanced by the integration of a thin layer of epsilon-near-zero material, aluminum nitride near the longitudinal optical phonon resonance, which supports supercoupling, a term that describes the effect of field enhancement caused by squeezing energy into arbitrary-sized regions. While SPhPs are inherently transverse magnetic modes, a transverse electric (TE) mode is sought to best exploit the ENZ supercoupling phenomenon. By adding a thin high index layer (GaAs) over the 4H-SiC substrate, a mimic TE mode is achieved. The epsilon-near-zero supercoupling-enhanced mimic TE hybrid SPhP waveguide presented exhibits modal confinement improvement by as much as a factor of 4 while maintaining more than 95% of the original propagation length.

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Michael F. Finch, Delroy D. Rebello, and Brian A. Lail "Mode confinement enhanced by exploiting epsilon-near-zero supercoupling in a mimic transverse electric hybrid phonon polariton waveguide," Optical Engineering 58(6), 067107 (28 June 2019). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.58.6.067107

Received: 16 November 2018; Accepted: 13 June 2019; Published: 28 June 2019

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KEYWORDS

Waveguides

Dielectrics

Silicon carbide

Phonons

Wave propagation

Polaritons

Aluminum nitride

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