Guided Plasmon Modes of Elliptical Cross Section Silver Nanoridges
  Propagating two-dimensional plasmon modes guided by elliptical cross section silver nanoridges are investigated in this paper. Mode field profiles, dispersion curves, propagation distances, and figure-of-merits of the plasmon ridge modes are calculated for various elliptical cross sections. It is found that an elliptical cross section metal nanoridge, if designed properly, can support a well-confined plasmon mode with a longer propagation distance and a higher figure-of-merit than the flat-top nanoridge plasmon waveguide of the same width. The optimal ridge waveguide cross section is obtained when the elliptical ridge top has a semicircular cross section. When the curvature of the elliptical nanoridge is large, the mode approaches the tightly confined wedge plasmon mode. 
Zeyu Pan, Junpeng Guo, Richard Soref, and Walter Buchwald
physics.optics