We numerically demonstrate a kind of metal heterostructure (MHS) for high-efficiency nanofocusing and nanoguiding of light through finite-difference time-domain simulations. The results reveal that Al–Ag constructed MHSs with a trapezoid Ag guide can focus an incident light into a domain of about $0.004{\lambda }^2$ with higher than 96% focusing efficiency, whereas that with a rectangular Ag guide can transport light energy within $65\mathrm{nm}\times 55\mathrm{nm}$ cross section with a propagation loss as low as $2.0\mathrm{dB}∕\mu \mathrm{m}$ . The physics behind the above interesting nanophotonic properties is explained on the basis of the principle of conventional integrated optics, and potential applications of MHSs in other nanophotonic devices are also discussed.

© 2006 Optical Society of America

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