Fig. 1.
Fundamental differences between dielectric waveguides on an SOI platform. a Strip waveguide; b photonic crystal waveguide; c slot waveguide; d e-skid waveguide. The skin-depth in the cladding of e-skid waveguide is shorter compared to the other structures due to the strong effective anisotropy of the multilayer cladding. This counterintuitive approach can have a cladding with a higher average index than the core and marks a departure from interference-based confinement as in photonic crystal waveguides or slot waveguides which utilize nanoscale field enhancement