Surface phonon polaritons (SPhPs), similar to it cousin phenomenon surface plasmon polaitons (SPPs), are quasi-neutral particles resulting from light-matter coupling that can provide high modal confinement and long propagation in the mid to long infrared (IR). Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is a combination of two connected optical directional couplers (ODC). With the use of SPhPs, sub-wavelength feature sizes and modal areas can be achieved and to this end a hybrid SPhP waveguide, where propagation length and modal area can be trade-off, will be employed in the design of an ODC and MZI. This endeavor analyzes and characteristics both an ODC and MZI using commercially available numerical simulation software employing finite element method (FEM). The ODC and MZI are design using a novel SPhP hybrid waveguide design where a 4H-SiC substrate provides the polariton mode. The output ports power and relative phase difference between ports are investigated. SPhP enhanced ODC and MZI has applications including, but not limited to, next-generation ultra-compact photonic integrated circuits and waveguide based IR sensing.

Date Published: 16 September 2016
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 9918, Metamaterials, Metadevices, and Metasystems 2016, 99181M (16 September 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2238051

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9918:
Metamaterials, Metadevices, and Metasystems 2016
Nader Engheta; Mikhail A. Noginov; Nikolay I. Zheludev, Editor(s)