Abstract
We demonstrate low loss (0.4043 dB/Km at 1.55 μm) deep sub-wavelength broadband evanescent
field confinement in low index material from near IR to mid IR wavelengths with the aid of an specialty optical fiber
whilst achieving at least 1.5 dB improvement of figure of merit over the previous design. Plane strain analysis
has been conducted to foresee fiber material dependent fabrication challenges associated with such nanoscale feature
due to thermal stress. Size dependence of air hole is explained rigorously by modifying the existent slot waveguide
model. We report significant improvement of field intensity, interaction length, bandwidth and surface sensitivity
over the conventional free standing nanowire structure. The effect of metal layer thickness on surface plasmon
resonance sensitivity is explored as well. A method to obtain strong evanescent field in such structure for medical
sensing is also demonstrated. The proposed technique to enhance sub-wavelength confinement is expected to be of
potential engineering merits for optical nanosensors, atomic scale waveguide for single molecule inspection and
ultra-low mode volume cavity.
© 2014 IEEE
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