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Efficient tunable plasmonic mode converters infiltrated with nematic liquid crystal layers

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Abstract

This paper presents two efficient tunable plasmonic mode converters in the infrared regime. The proposed configurations consist of silver layer with etched rectangular holes as metal insulator metal waveguides with central cavities. The holes are infiltrated by nematic liquid crystal (NLC) material to increase the transmission through the suggested designs. Additionally, the NLC is used to have tunable operation where the modes at the output port can be controlled. The simulations are carried out using full vectorial finite element method. The first design has a single output port which converts the TM mode into the TEM mode with high transmission conversion efficiency of 70%. Further, the second structure allows the generation of the two plasmonic modes simultaneously in two output waveguides. During the biased state, the s- mode transmission conversion efficiency reaches 50% while the transmission of a- mode at the unbiased state is equal to 49%. It is expected that the proposed tunable mode converters will play an important role in the development of the plasmonic-photonic circuits.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Mansoura, Mansoura, 35516, Egypt

    Randa H. Kabeel, Nihal F. F. Areed & Salah S. A. Obayya

  2. Centre for Photonics and Smart Materials, Zewail City of Science and Technology, October Gardens, 6th of October City, Giza, 12578, Egypt

    Mohamed Farhat O. Hameed & Salah S. A. Obayya

  3. Nanotechnology and Nanoelectronics Engineering Program, Zewail City of Science and Technology, October Gardens, 6th of October City, Giza, 12578, Egypt

    Mohamed Farhat O. Hameed

  4. Mathimatics and Engineering Physics Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Mansoura, Mansoura, 35516, Egypt

    Mohamed Farhat O. Hameed

Authors
  1. Randa H. Kabeel
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  2. Nihal F. F. Areed
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  3. Mohamed Farhat O. Hameed
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  4. Salah S. A. Obayya
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Correspondence to Mohamed Farhat O. Hameed or Salah S. A. Obayya.

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In the original publication of the article, the article title was published with an error and the author name Salah S. A. Obayya was incorrectly written as Salah S. A. Salah.

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Kabeel, R.H., Areed, N.F.F., Hameed, M.F.O. et al. Efficient tunable plasmonic mode converters infiltrated with nematic liquid crystal layers. Opt Quant Electron 53, 436 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-021-03086-5

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