Dielectric and plasmon slot waveguides for photonic integration

Slot waveguides formed either in high-index dielectrics or in metals attract great interest because they provide sub-wavelength confinement in the slot region. While this feature is very attractive for devices relying on stimulated emission or nonlinear effects, it does not necessarily improve the integration density. The spacing between dielectric slot waveguides is still limited by diffraction. Although for metal (plasmon) waveguides the total field can be shrunk far beyond the diffraction limit, the associated increase in propagation loss will set practical limits on both the minimum waveguide width and edge-to-edge separation. Here we compare the packing densities for 3D slot waveguides in silicon and plasmon waveguides in gold with a silicon slot. As a reference we also consider silicon photonic wire. We calculate center-to-center waveguide separations (pitch) versus cross-talk level. We show that at ca 24 dB/mum cross-talk and requiring the attenuation length of at least 5 mum, plasmon slot waveguides can be packed ca 3.5 times denser than silicon slot waveguides, and ca 2.5 times denser than photonic wires. We also show examples of the fabricated devices.