Wavelength selection by dielectric-loaded plasmonic components

Fabrication, characterization, and modeling of waveguide-ring resonators and in-line Bragg gratings for wavelength selection in the telecommunication range are reported utilizing dielectric-loaded surface plasmon-polariton waveguides. The devices were fabricated by depositing subwavelength-sized polymer ridges on a smooth gold film using industrially compatible large-scale UV photolithography. We demonstrate efficient and compact wavelength-selective filters, including waveguide-ring resonators with an insertion loss of ∼2 dB and a footprint of only 150 μm2 featuring narrow bandwidth (∼20 nm) and high contrast (∼13 dB) features in the transmission spectrum. The performance of the components is found in good agreement with the results obtained by full vectorial three-dimensional finite element simulations.