Directional coupler based on an elliptic cylindrical nanowire hybrid plasmonic waveguide.

We present what we believe is a novel directional coupler based on an elliptic cylindrical nanowire hybrid plasmonic waveguide. Using the finite element method, the electric field distributions of y-polarized symmetric and antisymmetric modes of the coupler are compared, and the coupling and transmission characteristics are analyzed; then the optimized separation distance between the two parallel waveguides, 100 nm, is obtained. This optimized architecture fits in the weak coupling regime.