Propagation Properties of the SPP Modes in Nanoscale Narrow Metallic Gap, Channel, and Hole Geometries

The propagation properties of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) modes in nanoscale narrow metallic structures: gap, channel, and rectangular-hole waveguides, are analyzed by the complex effective dielectric constant approximation. The results show that all the SPP modes exist below the critical frequency where the real part of metal permittivity is negative unity. It is found that both cutoff frequency and cutoff height exist in channel waveguide and rectangularhole waveguide. The channel and rectangular-hole waveguides have different propagation properties at cutoffs due to their different cutoff conditions. Compared with the gap waveguide, the channel waveguide has shorter propagation length and better confinement when the operation frequency is near the critical frequency, but has longer propagation length and worse confinement when the operation frequency is far from the critical frequency. Among the three waveguides, the rectangular-hole waveguide has the best confinement factor and the shortest propagation length. The comprehensive analysis for the gap, channel, and rectangular-hole waveguides can provide some guidelines in the design of subwavelength optical devices.