Designing plasmonic structures

Abstract

This thesis describes methods and results used in the design of various photonic structures. The emphasis of this thesis is in the theoretical and computational methods employed in the design. Many structures were fabricated and experimentally characterized confirming simulation results. Theoretically, surface plasmons (SPs) or more generally the study of light near micro- or nano-fabricated metallic surfaces, play a major role in all structures in this thesis. An effective work-flow in designing "plasmonic" structures is detailed. Various applications are then discussed: (1) Enhanced transmission through subwavelength apertures in metal films; (2) long range SP hybrid waveguides for use in the area of micro-electronics; (3) circular micro-polarizers, which also filter for a specific color band, combined with linear polarizers for full stokes polarization imaging; and (4) using plasmonic couplers to increase efficiency of metal-insulator-metal (MIM) tunnel junction detectors for use in the low THz. General conclusions about the efficacy of plasmonic structures, or the lack thereof, in these applications are discussed.