Plasmonic Slot Waveguide Propagation Analysis

Plasmonic slot waveguides provide extreme light confinement with the benefits of having naturally present electrodes for switching and high thermal conductivity of the metal layers to remove excess heat. Past works relied on numerical computation for these structures, which is time-consuming and lacks physical insight. Here, we present an analytical model of plasmonic slot waveguides to determine the modal properties based on single-mode matching to continuum. The model is accurate to within 3% of rigorous numerical simulations. The theory allows for rapid design and provides physical insight into mode propagation in plasmonic slot waveguides for information processing, optical manipulation, and sensing applications.