Theoretical study of liquid crystal dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguide

Abstract

A fully two-dimensional theoretical study of the electromagnetic wave propagation through Metal–Liquid Crystal–Metal (M–LC–M) waveguide structure is presented. Dispersion relations corresponding to both symmetric and antisymmetric-coupled surface plasmons polaritons modes in M–LC–M structure are derived and numerically solved. The effects of LC tilt angles on the effective refractive index and propagation length are proposed. The analytical method is in good agreement with those obtained from finite-difference time-domain simulation. The obtained analytic formula can be used as an efficient element in designing tunable ultrahigh nanoscale integrated plasmonic devices.