On the design of integrated waveguides using a dielectric-metal substrate structure for on-chip optical communication

For on-chip communication, subwavelength optical waveguides have the potential to enable the high-speed transmission of large quantities of information. In this paper, we develop an efficient method to optimize the design of waveguides consisting of a dielectric strip over a metallic substrate. We investigate the effect of the design parameters on the light propagation and find the optimum design taking into account waveguide geometry, loss, and light confinement. The results indicate that the waveguide can support single mode propagation while simultaneously achieving low loss and high confinement, which is crucial for the realization of subwavelength on-chip optical communication in future nanoscale integrated circuits. ©2006 IEEE.