LAUSR

In this work, we discuss evanescent light coupling to silicon waveguides using surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in the Otto configuration. The setup for excitation of SPPs includes a fused-silica prism, a 100 nm silver layer with a 650 nm airgap between them, and a tapered silicon waveguide located across from the silver layer. A $p$p-polarized light of 1550 nm wavelength is incident at plasmonic angle of 44° to the interface of the fused silica-airgap to excite the SPP. A 2D Lumerical FDTD Solutions simulation shows a coupling efficiency of 54%. The fabricated device on a silicon-on-insulator substrate shows 10% light transmission for $p$p-polarized light.