Surface plasmon polariton based modulators and switches operating at telecom wavelengths

We report design, fabrication, and characterization of thermo-optic Mach-Zender interferometric modulators and directional-coupler switches whose operation utilizes the long-range surface-plasmon-polariton waveguiding along 15-nm-thin and 8-μm-wide gold stripes embedded in polymer and heated by elec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2004-12, Vol.85 (24), p.5833-5835
Main Authors: Nikolajsen, Thomas, Leosson, Kristjan, Bozhevolnyi, Sergey I.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We report design, fabrication, and characterization of thermo-optic Mach-Zender interferometric modulators and directional-coupler switches whose operation utilizes the long-range surface-plasmon-polariton waveguiding along 15-nm-thin and 8-μm-wide gold stripes embedded in polymer and heated by electrical signal currents. The devices are characterized at the light wavelength of 1.55 μm, featuring low driving powers ( < 10 mW for modulators and < 100 mW for switches), high extinction ratios ( > 30 dB ), moderate response times ( ∼ 1 ms ) , and the total (fiber-to-fiber) insertion loss of ∼ 13 dB (for modulators) and ∼ 11 dB (for switches) when using single-mode fibers.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.1835997