Modal Characteristics of Grating-Assisted Directional Coupler with 2D Periodic Patterns

Longitudinal transmission-line modal theory is applied to analyze the guiding mode characteristics along 1D & 2D grating patterns of plasmonic grating-assisted directional couplers (P-GADC) based on silicon waveguide. By defining supermodes amenable to rigorous analytical solutions and interference between even and odd modes, the field distributions of TE modes for each grating patterns are evaluated. The numerical result reveals that the field distribution with maximum coupling efficiency occurs at P-GADC composed by square grating pattern. That is, it reveals at a minium gap condition of grating period dmin = 8.8μm different from conventional phase-matching condition of GADC.