Photoconductively Loaded Plasmonic Nanoantenna as Building Block for Ultracompact Optical Switches

We propose and explore theoretically a new concept of ultrafast optical switches based on nonlinear plasmonic nanoantennas. The antenna nanoswitch operates on the transition from the capacitive to conductive coupling regimes between two closely spaced metal nanorods. By filling the antenna gap with...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nano letters 2010-05, Vol.10 (5), p.1741-1746
Main Authors: Large, Nicolas, Abb, Martina, Aizpurua, Javier, Muskens, Otto L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Collective excitations (including excitons, polarons, plasmons and other charge-density excitations)
Computer-Aided Design
Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties
Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science
rheology
Electric Conductivity
Electronic structure and electrical properties of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and low-dimensional structures
Electronics
Electronics - instrumentation
Equipment Design
Equipment Failure Analysis
Exact sciences and technology
Materials science
Micro-Electrical-Mechanical Systems - instrumentation
Molecular electronics, nanoelectronics
Nanocrystalline materials
Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization
Nanotechnology - instrumentation
Nanotubes
Optical Devices
Physics
Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices
Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted - instrumentation
Surface and interface electron states
Surface Plasmon Resonance - instrumentation
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Summary:We propose and explore theoretically a new concept of ultrafast optical switches based on nonlinear plasmonic nanoantennas. The antenna nanoswitch operates on the transition from the capacitive to conductive coupling regimes between two closely spaced metal nanorods. By filling the antenna gap with amorphous silicon, progressive antenna-gap loading is achieved due to variations in the free-carrier density in the semiconductor. Strong modification of the antenna response is observed both in the far-field response and in the local near-field intensity. The large modulation depth, low switching threshold, and potentially ultrafast time response of antenna switches holds promise for applications ranging from integrated nanophotonic circuits to quantum information devices.
ISSN:1530-6984
1530-6992
DOI:10.1021/nl1001636