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- Title
Compact nanomechanical plasmonic phase modulators.
- Authors
Dennis, B. S.; Haftel, M. I.; Czaplewski, D. A.; Lopez, D.; Blumberg, G.; Aksyuk, V. A.
- Abstract
Highly confined optical energy in plasmonic devices is advancing miniaturization in photonics. However, for mode sizes approaching ≈10 nm, the energy increasingly shifts into the metal, raising losses and hindering active phase modulation. Here, we propose a nanoelectromechanical phase-modulation principle exploiting the extraordinarily strong dependence of the phase velocity of metal-insulator-metal gap plasmons on dynamically variable gap size. We experimentally demonstrate a 23-μm-long non-resonant modulator having a 1.5π rad range, with 1.7 dB excess loss at 780 nm. Analysis shows that by simultaneously decreasing the gap, length and width, an ultracompact-footprint π rad phase modulator can be realized. This is achieved without incurring the extra loss expected for plasmons confined in a decreasing gap, because the increasing phase-modulation strength from a narrowing gap offsets rising propagation losses. Such small, high-density electrically controllable components may find applications in optical switch fabrics and reconfigurable plasmonic optics.
- Subjects
NANOELECTROMECHANICAL systems; PHASE modulation; PLASMONICS; METAL-insulator-metal devices; OPTICAL switches; SURFACE plasmon resonance
- Publication
Nature Photonics, 2015, Vol 9, Issue 4, p267
- ISSN
1749-4885
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/nphoton.2015.40