A robust and efficient model for transmission of surface plasmon polaritons onto metal–insulator–metal apertures

Abstract

A simple yet accurate model for the transmission of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in a finite metal–insulator–metal (MIM) waveguide to the sides of the apertures is proposed and demonstrated to be more accurate than the available models. It is as simple as using a magnetic current density across the plane of the aperture whose value is defined by the SPPs with any number of modes in the waveguide through the equivalence principle. Then, the generated SPPs on both sides of the aperture are extracted from the convolution integral of the equivalent current density and Green’s function. As a result, the model provides the transmission coefficients of the SPPs in the MIM waveguide to the side walls of the aperture accurately and efficiently; not only for symmetric MIM waveguides with a single isolating layer but also non-symmetric ones with multi-layered insulating materials. The results are in very good agreement with those obtained by the finite-difference time-domain method and better than the other approximations available in literature for a wide range of aperture widths.

Keywords

• surface plasmon polaritons
• slit aperture
• mode-matching method
• surface impedance
• equivalence principle