A novel photonic-to-plasmonic mode converter for efficiently converting a silicon strip waveguide mode to a gap surface plasmon polariton (SPP) of a metallic slot structure is proposed. A conversion efficiency of more than 85% is found for metallic slots with a slot size of 30-50 nm. Calculations show that high conversion efficiencies can be achieved for various cladding materials with refractive indices of 1.44, 1.6, and 1.7. The optical 1 dB bandwidth of the converter is around 200 nm. The proposed mode converter shows a good tolerance with respect to fabrication errors, and it requires a simple fabrication procedure only.