Fiber-Coupled Surface Plasmon Polariton Excitation in Imprinted Dielectric-Loaded Waveguides

Figure 6

SEM image showing the cleaved end of an optical waveguide. As can be seen, the cut is quite clean, however, it is not perfectly perpendicular to the waveuide nor is it perfectly flat, and in addition there are some minor scratches in the waveguide. All of these features have an impact on the outcoupling of light from the waveguide and all of them can differ from waveguide to waveguide.