Multimode interference effect in plasmonic subwavelength waveguides and an ultra-compact power splitter

The real part of the effective index is enhanced in a metal–insulator–metal (MIM) surface plasmon waveguide when the thickness of the insulator is quite small and this mechanism can be utilized to achieve some ultra-compact photonic devices. The mode properties of an index-guided multimode plasmonic waveguide of subwavelength size are analyzed and the multimode interference (MMI) effect is investigated. A novel ultra-compact MMI power splitter, with the transverse size less than 1/3 of the free space wavelength, is proposed.