Guiding of long-range hybrid plasmon polariton in a coupled nanowire array at deep-subwavelength scale

A novel type of hybrid plasmonic waveguiding structure that integrates semiconductor and metallic nanowires has been proposed and investigated at telecommunication wavelengths. Semiconductor nanowires symmetrically placed on both sides of a metallic nanowire provide an additional degree of freedom for tuning the characteristics of the plasmonic nanowire mode. Theoretical analysis reveals that at appropriate geometrical parameters, the symmetric hybrid plasmonic mode of the waveguide could achieve subwavelength mode confinement with ultra-long propagation distance (even exceeding the millimeter range). Such a hybrid plasmonic nanowire structure could facilitate ultra-strong light-matter interaction between semiconductor and metal materials, and enable important applications in nanolasers and nonlinear photonics.