Avoiding Metallic Walls: Use of Modal Superposition in Plasmonic Waveguides to Reduce Propagation Loss

We theoretically explore the possibility of reducing propagation loss in a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguide, using mode combinations to achieve wall-avoiding field distributions along a certain propagation length. We present analytical results for several waveguides showing notable loss reduction, and we discuss the trade-offs between low loss and high confinement present in this technique.