Experimental demonstration of titanium nitride plasmonic interconnects

An insulator-metal-insulator plasmonic interconnect using TiN, a CMOS-compatible material, is proposed and investigated experimentally at the telecommunication wavelength of 1.55 mu m. The TiN waveguide was shown to obtain propagation losses less than 0.8 dB/mm with a mode size of 9.8 mu m on sapphire, which agree well with theoretical predictions. A theoretical analysis of a solid-state structure using Si3N4 superstrates and ultra-thin metal strips shows that propagation losses less than 0.3 dB/mm with a mode size of 9 mu m are attainable. This work illustrates the potential of TiN as a realistic plasmonic material for practical solid-state, integrated nano-optic and hybrid photonic devices. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America