Abstract

A planar, thick slab or thin film, metal waveguide is situated parallel to a planar dielectric film waveguide. As a consequence of the wave interaction between the surface polariton supported by the metal waveguide and the transverse magnetic guided mode of the dielectric waveguide, the latter can be either completely extinguished or its power 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 waveguide 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.

© 1989 Optical Society of America