Open AccessExcitation of plasmonic gap waveguides by nanoantennas
Author(s) -
Jing Wen,
S. G. Romanov,
Ulf Peschel
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.17.005925
Subject(s) - plasmon , excitation , antenna (radio) , optics , waveguide , coupling (piping) , optoelectronics , materials science , dipole , physics , telecommunications , computer science , quantum mechanics , metallurgy
We model and optimize the excitation of a plasmonic gap waveguide by a dipole antenna. The coupling efficiency strongly depends on antenna and waveguide properties where impedance matching plays a critical role. The optimization of antenna lengths and gap widths shows that concepts of circuit networks can likewise be applied to optical frequencies. Using classical optimization schemes known from electrical engineering we manage to increase the coupling efficiency by a factor of 129 compared with the situation without antennas.