CMOS-Compatible Hybrid Plasmonic Slot Waveguide for On-Chip Photonic Circuits

For development of on-chip photonic circuits, a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible hybrid plasmonic slot waveguide is proposed. The characteristics of its guided hybrid modes at a wavelength of 1.55 μm are investigated by the finite-element method. The combination of a Si gate and metallic features of a CMOS electronic device provides both subwavelength light confinement and long propagation length with high power intensity. The characteristics of the guided hybrid mode are improved by optimizing the configurations of the Si core. The proposed hybrid plasmonic slot waveguide is compatible not only with the silicon electronics fabrication processes but also with the metallic features of CMOS electronic devices.