Abstract

A nanostructured chalcogenide–metal optical fiber is proposed. This hybrid nanofiber is embedded with a periodic array of triangular-shaped deep-subwavelength metallic nanowires set up in a bowtie configuration. Our simulations show that the proposed nanostructured fiber supports a guided plasmonic mode enabling both subwavelength field confinement and extreme nonlinear light–matter interactions, much larger than a bare chalcogenide nanowire of comparable diameter. This is all achieved with less than 3% by volume of metal content.

© 2011 Optical Society of America