All-plasmonic switching based on thermal nonlinearity in a polymer plasmonic microring resonator

Abstract

We experimentally investigated thermal nonlinear effects in a hybrid Au/SiO(2)/SU-8 plasmonic microring resonator for nonlinear switching. Large ohmic loss in the metal layer gave rise to a high rate of light-to-heat conversion in the plasmonic waveguide, causing an intensity-dependent thermo-optic shift in the microring resonance. We obtained 30 times larger resonance shift in the plasmonic microring than in a similar SU-8 dielectric microring. Using an in-plane pump-and-probe configuration, we also demonstrated all-plasmonic nonlinear switching in the plasmonic microring with an on-off switching contrast of 4 dB over 50 mW input power.

Plasmofluidics: Merging Light and Fluids at the Micro-/Nanoscale

“…By combining SPs with microfluidic devices that can manipulate liquids of different optical properties or modify the shape of liquid‐metal interfaces, a new class of reconfigurable plasmofluidic devices has been demonstrated . The microfluidics‐enhanced reconfigurable devices offer a much broader tuning range of SPs than the traditional approaches that are based on the tunable properties of solid‐state dielectric materials or metal structures . Another major plasmonic application that has significantly benefited from microfluidics are plasmonic sensors.…”

“…SPs at a dielectric‐metal interface can be modulated by controlling the optical properties of the dielectric material and/or metal. Many functional dielectric materials have been demonstrated for the active tuning of SPs, including thermal‐optical polymers and electro‐optic materials . Ultrafast optical pumping of metals and controlled semiconductor–metal phase transitions have also led to reconfigurable plasmonic devices .…”

“…[ 36,[108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126] The microfl uidicsenhanced reconfi gurable devices offer a much broader tuning range of SPs than the traditional approaches that are based on the tunable properties of solidstate dielectric materials or metal structures. [127][128][129][130][131] Another major plasmonic application that has signifi cantly benefi ted from microfl uidics are plasmonic sensors. Through the precise delivery and manipulation of analyte solutions and metal nanoparticles, microfl uidic technology has greatly enhanced throughput and sensitivity of various types of plasmonic sensors.…”

Silicon hybrid nanoplasmonics for ultra-dense photonic integration

“…[142] and [143], more details for the nonlinearity in the silicon hybrid nanoplasmonic waveguides have been given. The enhanced nonlinearity in hybrid plasmonic waveguide enables all-optical switching [144], optical logic gate [145], and signal-format converters [146].…”

Plasmon switching effect based on graphene nanoribbon pair arrays

“…What is worth mentioning, in this paper, is that we propose a rather simple structure based on graphene nanoribbon (GNR) supporting plasmon switching effects in a nanoscale domain. Plasmon switching effects are also studied in many structures [27][28][29].…”