THICK METAL SURFACE-POLARITON POLARIZER FOR A PLANAR OPTICAL WAVE-GUIDE

A metal half-space is situated parallel to a planar dielectric film waveguide. As a consequence of the wave interaction between the surface polariton supported by the metal surface and the transverse-magnetic guided mode of the dielectric film, either the latter can be completely extinguished or its power can be substantially reduced in a small interaction length. The insertion loss in the same interaction length for the transverse-electric guided mode of the dielectric film is negligibly small. A metal cladding therefore serves as a polarizer for a planar dielectric film waveguide. The theory of this surface-polariton polarizer for a planar dielectric film optical waveguide is developed, and representative numerical results are presented. © 1990 Optical Society of America.