Fiber-coupled surface plasmon polariton excitation in imprinted dielectric-loaded waveguides

Abstract

We present fiber-coupled dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguides for 1.55 m telecom wavelength fabricated by two-photon polymerization and nanoimprint lithography. The waveguide structures include 100- m-long plasmonic waveguides connected on both ends to tapered dielectric waveguides used for end-fire coupling with optical fibers. The excitation of plasmonic waveguides is verified via polarization-resolved measurements of the overall transmission, demonstrating thereby that this technology is suitable in principle for the integration of plasmonic components into fiberoptics. Loss mechanisms are investigated and improvements suggested to reduce transmission losses and consequently increase the viability of practical application.