Plasmonic waveguides, which support surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) propagating along metal-dielectric interfaces, offer strong field confinement and are ideal for the design of integrated nano-scale photonic devices. However, due to free-carrier absorption in the metal, the enhanced mode confinement inevitably entails an increase in the waveguide loss. This lowers the device figure-of-merit achievable with passive plasmonic components and in turn hinders the performance of active plasmonic components such as optical modulators.

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Charles Lin, Yiwen Su, and Amr S. Helmy, "Nanoscale photonics using coupled hybrid plasmonic architectures," Proc. SPIE 9884, Nanophotonics VI, 98840C (Presented at SPIE Photonics Europe: April 04, 2016; Published: 18 April 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2227423.