Abstract-Theoretical investigation of semiconductor supported tunable terahertz dielectric loaded surface plasmons waveguides

• Chunlin Liu, 
• Xiaoyong He, 
• Zhenyu Zhao, 
• Hao Zhang, 
• Wangzhou Shi

• Department of Physics, Mathematics & Science College, Shanghai Normal University, No. 100 Guilin Road, Shanghai 200234, PR China

Received 16 April 2015, Revised 12 July 2015, Accepted 21 July 2015, Available online 30 July 2015

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0030401815006604

The tunable propagation properties of semiconductor-based dielectric loaded surface plasmons (DLSPs) structures have been theoretically investigated in the THz regime, including the effects of temperature, operation frequency, and the thermo-optic effect of dielectric stripe materials. The results show that the waveguide properties of DLSPs structure can be modulated in a wide range via changing the temperature. For instance, when the temperature is changed in the range of 300–600 K, the modulation depth of propagation length can reach more than 80%. With the increase of refractive index of the dielectric stripe, the modulation depth of the effective indices and propagation lengths increase. In addition, the propagation length and figure of the merit can be improved obviously with the hybrid dielectric stripe structure (by coating Si on the SiO₂ layer). The results are very helpful to design novel waveguide devices, such as modulators, switchers, sensors and polarizers.