Modeling of plasmonic nanostructures in COMSOL

Abstract

Finite element method (FEM) is used to solve the behavior problem of electromagnetic (EM) waves in various structures. COMSOL is widely used commercial software solving range of problems by application of FEM. Guided electromagnetic waves on the boundary between metal and dielectric is called the surface plasmon polariton (SPP). The light is concentrated into smaller area than the diffraction limit and this effect is extremely sensitive to changes in materials. The use of SPP lies mainly in sensor technology. Another possible use is in integrated optics for construction of smaller and faster photonic chips where light is guided by surface plasmon waveguides (e.g. metal-insulator-metal architecture).

This diploma thesis should provide the reader with the fundamentals of the plasmonics and especially the possibilities of modeling 2D nanostructures in COMSOL Multiphysics software. The thesis contains several model examples on which the modeling process is shown. As advanced nanostructures we choose the nanostructures that use magneto-optics efects.