A novel plasmonic waveguide-coupled nanocavity with a monopole antenna is proposed to localize the optical power from a hybrid plasmonic waveguide and subsequently convert it into electrical current. The nanocavity is designed as a Fabry-Pérot waveguide resonator, while the monopole antenna is made of a metallic nanorod directly mounted onto the metallic part of the waveguide terminal which acts as the conducting ground. The nanocavity coincides with the antenna feed sandwiched in between the antenna and the ground. Maximum power from the waveguide can be coupled into, and absorbed in the nanocavity by means of the field resonance in the antenna as well as in the nanocavity. Simulation results show that 42% optical power from the waveguide can be absorbed in a germanium filled nanocavity with a nanoscale volume of 220 × 150 × 60nm³. The design may find applications in nanoscale photo-detection, subwavelength light focusing and manipulating, as well as sensing.

© 2011 OSA

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Contemp. Phys.

• Q. Park, “Optical antennas and plasmonics,” Contemp. Phys. 50(2), 407–423 (2009). [CrossRef]

IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.

• M. X. Gu, P. Bai, and E. P. Li, “Enhancing the reception of propagating surface plasmons using a nanoantenna,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 22(4), 245–247 (2010). [CrossRef]

Mater. Today

• R. Zia, J. A. Schuller, A. Chandran, and M. L. Brongersma, “Plasmonics: the next chip-scale technology,” Mater. Today 9(7–8), 20–27 (2006). [CrossRef]

Nano Lett.

• J. A. Dionne, K. Diest, L. A. Sweatlock, and H. A. Atwater, “PlasMOStor: a metal-oxide-Si field effect plasmonic modulator,” Nano Lett. 9(2), 897–902 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• T. H. Taminiau, R. J. Moerland, F. B. Segerink, L. Kuipers, and N. F. van Hulst, “λ/4 resonance of an optical monopole antenna probed by single molecule fluorescence,” Nano Lett. 7(1), 28–33 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Nat. Nanotechnol.

• G. A. Wurtz, R. Pollard, W. Hendren, G. P. Wiederrecht, D. J. Gosztola, V. A. Podolskiy, and A. V. Zayats, “Designed ultrafast optical nonlinearity in a plasmonic nanorod metamaterial enhanced by nonlocality,” Nat. Nanotechnol. 6(2), 107–111 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Nat. Photonics

• L. Tang, S. E. Kocabas, S. Latif, A. K. Okyay, D. Ly-Gagnon, K. Saraswat, and D. A. B. Miller, “Nanometre-scale germanium photodetector enhanced by a near-infrared dipole antenna,” Nat. Photonics 2(4), 226–229 (2008). [CrossRef]
• P. Neutens, P. Van Dorpe, I. De Vlaminck, L. Lagae, and G. Borghs, “Electrical detection of confined gap plasmons in metal–insulator–metal waveguides,” Nat. Photonics 3(5), 283–286 (2009). [CrossRef]
• D. M. Koller, A. Hohenau, H. Ditlbacher, N. Galler, F. Reil, F. R. Aussenegg, A. Leitner, E. J. W. List, and J. R. Krenn, “Organic plasmon-emitting diode,” Nat. Photonics 2(11), 684–687 (2008). [CrossRef]
• S. A. Maier, “Waveguiding: The best of both worlds,” Nat. Photonics 2(8), 460–461 (2008). [CrossRef]
• R. F. Oulton, V. J. Sorger, D. A. Genov, D. F. P. Pile, and X. Zhang, “A hybrid plasmonic waveguide for subwavelength confinement and long-range propagation,” Nat. Photonics 2(8), 496–500 (2008). [CrossRef]
• L. Novotny and N. van Hulst, “Antennas for light,” Nat. Photonics 5(2), 83–90 (2011). [CrossRef]

Nature

• J. Barnes, “A simple Fabry and Pérot interferometer,” Nature 80(2059), 187–188 (1909). [CrossRef]
• R. F. Oulton, V. J. Sorger, T. Zentgraf, R. M. Ma, C. Gladden, L. Dai, G. Bartal, and X. Zhang, “Plasmon lasers at deep subwavelength scale,” Nature 461(7264), 629–632 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• M. A. Noginov, G. Zhu, A. M. Belgrave, R. Bakker, V. M. Shalaev, E. E. Narimanov, S. Stout, E. Herz, T. Suteewong, and U. Wiesner, “Demonstration of a spaser-based nanolaser,” Nature 460(7259), 1110–1112 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Opt. Express

• D. Dai and S. He, “A silicon-based hybrid plasmonic waveguide with a metal cap for a nano-scale light confinement,” Opt. Express 17(19), 16646–16653 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• J. T. Kim, J. J. Ju, S. Park, M. S. Kim, S. K. Park, and S. Y. Shin, “Hybrid plasmonic waveguide for low-loss lightwave guiding,” Opt. Express 18(3), 2808–2813 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• H. S. Chu, W. B. Ewe, E. P. Li, and R. Vahldieck, “Analysis of sub-wavelength light propagation through long double-chain nanowires with funnel feeding,” Opt. Express 15(7), 4216–4223 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• A. V. Krasavin and A. V. Zayats, “Silicon-based plasmonic waveguides,” Opt. Express 18(11), 11791–11799 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• P. Bai, M. X. Gu, X. C. Wei, and E. P. Li, “Electrical detection of plasmonic waves using an ultra-compact structure via a nanocavity,” Opt. Express 17(26), 24349–24357 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• L. Vivien, J. Osmond, J. M. Fédéli, D. Marris-Morini, P. Crozat, J. F. Damlencourt, E. Cassan, Y. Lecunff, and S. Laval, “42 GHz p.i.n Germanium photodetector integrated in a silicon-on-insulator waveguide,” Opt. Express 17(8), 6252–6257 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• L. Vivien, M. Rouvière, J. M. Fédéli, D. Marris-Morini, J. F. Damlencourt, J. Mangeney, P. Crozat, L. El Melhaoui, E. Cassan, X. Le Roux, D. Pascal, and S. Laval, “High speed and high responsivity germanium photodetector integrated in a Silicon-On-Insulator microwaveguide,” Opt. Express 15(15), 9843–9848 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• S. Zhu, G. Q. Lo, and D. L. Kwong, “Theoretical investigation of silicon MOS-type plasmonic slot waveguide based MZI modulators,” Opt. Express 18(26), 27802–27819 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• H. Fischer and O. J. F. Martin, “Engineering the optical response of plasmonic nanoantennas,” Opt. Express 16(12), 9144–9154 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Opt. Lett.

• L. Wang, K. Hoshino, and X. Zhang, “Light focusing by slot Fabry-Perot photonic crystal nanoresonator on scanning tip,” Opt. Lett. 36(10), 1917–1919 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Phys. Rev. Lett.

• L. Novotny, “Effective wavelength scaling for optical antennas,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 98(26), 266802 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Science

• P. Mühlschlegel, H. J. Eisler, O. J. F. Martin, B. Hecht, and D. W. Pohl, “Resonant optical antennas,” Science 308(5728), 1607–1609 (2005). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Other

• C. S. T. Microwave Studio, 2010, http://www.cst.com/ .
• E. D. Palik, Handbook of Optical Constants of Solids (Elsevier, 1998).
• C. A. Balanis, Antenna Theory—Analysis and Design, 3rd ed. (Wiley, 2005).

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