Y-Shaped Plasmonic Waveguide Splitter Coupled with Nano-Antenna for Optical Wireless Communication

Nanophotonic circuit is an emerging technology to achieve ultra-high speed communication systems. One of the key elements in the design of nanophotonic circuits is the coupling of optical energy from the optical source and guiding it into the various optical components at the nanoscale. The nano couplers used for this purpose have several limitations at plasmonic frequencies. The use of nano-antennas, which are capable of confining, enhancing, and coupling optical energy efficiently, could be an alternative to nano-couplers in nanophotonic circuits. In this view, the nano-antenna coupled Y-shaped plasmonic waveguide splitter using bowtie, hexagon, and square-shaped nano-antennas on a silicon dioxide substrate for optical wireless communication is investigated. The manuscript illustrates, the application of nano-antennas in plasmonic integrated circuits to couple the optical power from a source into the Y-shaped plasmonic waveguide splitter is illustrated. Initially, three nano-antennas, such as bowtie, hexagon, and square-shaped nanostructures are designed using silver on a silicon dioxide substrate and plasmonic resonance characteristics are analyzed in detail. It is observed that bowtie, hexagon, and square shaped nano-antennas exhibit minimum reflections of − 38.152 dB at 108.97 THz, − 39.098 dB at 174.5 THz and − 47.306 dB at 147 THz respectively. The coupling capacity of the nano-antenna is measured by comparing the power coupled into the ports of the Y-shaped plasmonic waveguide splitter with and without the use of the nano-antenna. Further, it is observed that the Y-shaped plasmonic waveguide splitter exhibits a maximum of 60, 70 and 75 dB enhancement in the coupling power into ports when coupled with bowtie, hexagon and square shaped nano-antennas respectively.