A Plasmonic-Mode-Assisted Sharp Waveguide Bend for Silicon Optical Nanocircuitry

A novel plasmonic-mode-assisted sharp waveguide bend in a metal/multi-insulator configuration for transverse-magnetic (TM) polarization is proposed and investigated at the operating wavelength of 1550 nm. The bending efficiency defined as the normalized transmission with respect to the straight counterpart of the bend could be larger than unity and is attributed to the net power flow into the bend. An insertion loss of <; 0.14 dB has been numerically shown to be attainable with the present sharp bend.