Hybrid Plasmonic Structures: From Photonic Devices to Bio-sensors

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In recent years the use of metallic structures at optical and infrared frequencies has enjoyed a strong resurgence. This is in large part due to the use of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), enabled with our continually improving ability to deposit and shape matter, particularly metals, at the nano-scale. SPPs are surface waves confined to the interface between a metal and a dielectric. These surface waves provide researchers with intriguing properties: they can be confined to exceedingly small dimensions, exhibit sharp intensities, and display strong resonances. These properties have motivated researchers to consider the use of SPPs for various applications ranging from compact photonic components and biosensors to photothermal and photovoltaic devices. However, to transform the SPPs to a versatile technology, certain challenges must be met. Chief among these challenges are: 1) the need to optimize the relation between two opposing factors: losses (propagation distance) and confinement (mode size); 2) the need for a variety of functional plasmonic devices that are silicon compatible; the 3) the need for plasmonic devices to support transverse electric (TE) mode in addition to the transverse magnetic (TM) mode, particularly for biosensing applications. The long term objective of our proposed program is to provide some answers to these challenges. To this end, recently our group was the first to propose the use of a passive hybrid plasmonic (HP) structure as an optimized solution to the problem of SPP loss versus confinement. Moreover, the HP structure is silicon compatible and supports both the TM and TE modes. We will achieve our long range objective by establishing a program which specifically advances our knowledge of the passive HP structure and various modes that it supports, and by designing, fabricating, testing, and characterizing a variety of passive, compact, and functional photonic and bio-plasmonic devices based on the HP architecture. Successful completion of the program proposed here is expected to have a great impact on the design of the next generation of optical and bio-medical devices.