Modular nonlinear hybrid plasmonic circuit

Abstract

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are revolutionizing nanotechnology, with far-reaching applications in telecommunications, molecular sensing, and quantum information. PIC designs rely on mature nanofabrication processes and readily available and optimised photonic components (gratings, splitters, couplers). Hybrid plasmonic elements can enhance PIC functionality (e.g., wavelength-scale polarization rotation, nanoscale optical volumes, and enhanced nonlinearities), but most PIC-compatible designs use single plasmonic elements, with more complex circuits typically requiring ab initio designs. Here we demonstrate a modular approach to post-processes off-the-shelf silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguides into hybrid plasmonic integrated circuits. These consist of a plasmonic rotator and a nanofocusser, which generate the second harmonic frequency of the incoming light. We characterize each component's performance on the SOI waveguide, experimentally demonstrating intensity enhancements of more than 200 in an inferred mode area of 100 nm 2 , at a pump wavelength of 1320 nm. This modular approach to plasmonic circuitry makes the applications of this technology more practical.

Crossing the exceptional point in a fiber-plasmonic waveguide -INVITED

“…The same principles could be further applied to chip-scale devices with dimensions further reduced by one order of magnitude, e.g. using hybrid plasmonic waveguides modules [9]. These devices could find important applications in convenient, monolithic plasmonic biosensors of single-molecule events [6].…”

Engineering photonic environments for two-dimensional materials

“…Integration of these plasmonic resonators and metamaterials with photonic circuits is arguably more crucial than in the case of dielectric resonators because the propagation loss of plasmonic waveguides is many orders of magnitude greater than that of photonic waveguides. To address this issue, hybrid photonic-plasmonic devices have been successfully demonstrated which combine the extreme light confinement of plasmonics with the low propagation loss of photonics [120][121][122][123][124]. This hybrid approach has also been used in the context of plasmonic enhancement of 2D materials for both optical modulation [9] and photodetection [53,125].…”

CMOS‐Compatible Electronic–Plasmonic Transducers Based on Plasmonic Tunnel Junctions and Schottky Diodes

“…Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) have attracted much attention due to their potential in applications in various areas of research, including sensing, catalysis, spectroscopy, imaging, or on-chip applications. [1,2] For on-chip applications, it is crucial to develop plasmonic components that are electrically driven and compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. [3][4][5] Most plasmonic components, however, are optically driven by off-chip light sources [6,7] and limited to to control the direction of SPP excitation and propagation from tunnel junctions by integration of edge-to-edge nanorods, [20] Yagi-Uda antennas, [21,22] or aperiodic gratings.…”

“…These electronic-plasmonic transducers do not require bulky off-chip components and are useful for future on-chip applications where it is vital to interface plasmonics with microelectronics. [1,9] Often, SPPs are excited by optical means, which requires momentummatching elements such as gratings or prisms. [10] One approach to realize on-chip excitation of SPPs is to miniaturize the light sources where first an electrical signal is converted to photons which then couple to SPPs.…”