Ultrafast all-optical modulators
are crucial parts of prospective
photonic devices. A number of plasmonic and dielectric nanostructures
were nominated as candidates for integrated all-optical circuits.
The key principle in the design of such devices is to engineer artificial
optical resonances to increase the magnitude of modulation or to change
the characteristic switching time. The major drawback is that the
manufacturing becomes rather sophisticated. Here, we propose a method
to tailor the ultrafast response of photonic crystal–metal
nanostructures by employing a spectral shift of the Tamm-plasmon resonance.
We show that for the absorbed pump fluence of 6 pJ reflectance of
the sample at the near-infrared probe wavelength in the vicinity of
the Tamm-plasmon resonance changes 25× stronger as compared with
a bare metal film. Additionally, we show that by choosing a proper
wavelength around the resonance a background-free reflectance modulation
can be achieved. The characteristic pulse-limited switching time,
in this case, is 150 fs.