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Optics Express

Ultrafast all-optical switching in nanoplasmonic waveguide with Kerr nonlinear resonator

Hua Lü, Xueming Liu, Leiran Wang, Yongkang Gong, Dong Mao

Published Jan 31, 2011• 306 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A novel ultrafast all-optical switching based on metal-insulator-metal nanoplasmonic waveguide with a Kerr nonlinear resonator is proposed and investigated numerically. With the finite-difference time-domain simulations, it is demonstrated that an obvious optical bistability of the signal light appears by varying the control-light intensity, and an excellent switching effect is achieved. This bistability originates from the intensity-dependent change induced in the dielectric constant of Kerr nonlinear material filled in the nanodisk resonator. It is found that the proposed all-optical switching exhibits femtosecond-scale feedback time.

DOI
10.1364/oe.19.002910

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A novel ultrafast all-optical switching based on metal-insulator-metal nanoplasmonic waveguide with a Kerr nonlinear resonator is proposed and investigated numerically. With the finite-difference time-domain simulations, it is demonstrated that an obvious optical bistability of the signal light appears by varying the control-light intensity, and an excellent switching effect is achieved. This bistability originates from the intensity-dependent change induced in the dielectric constant of Kerr nonlinear material filled in the nanodisk resonator. It is found that the proposed all-optical switching exhibits femtosecond-scale feedback time.
We have investigated numerically an optical bistability effect based on an analog of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a nanoscale plasmonic waveguide-coupled resonator system. The system consists of a metal-insulator-metal waveguide side-coupled with a slot cavity and a nanodisk cavity containing Kerr nonlinear material. By finite-difference time-domain simulations, the EIT-like spectral peak has a redshift with an increase of the dielectric constant of the nanodisk cavity. More importantly, we have achieved an optical bistability with threshold intensity about three times lower than that of recent literature [Appl. Opt.50, 5287 (2011)]. The results show that our plasmonic structure can find more excellent application in highly integrated optical circuits, especially all-optical switching.
We theoretically and numerically investigate a low-power, ultrafast, and dynamic all-optical tunable plasmonic analog to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in two nanodisk resonators side-coupled to a metal-insulator-metal plasmonic waveguide system. The optical Kerr effect is enhanced by the slow light effect of the plasmonic EIT-like effect and the plasmonic waveguide based on graphene-Ag composite material structures with giant effective Kerr nonlinear coefficient. The optical Kerr effect modulation method is applied to improve tuning rate with response time of subpicoseconds or even femtoseconds. With dynamically tuning the propagation phase of the plasmonic waveguide, π-phase shift of the transmission spectrum in the plasmonic EIT-like system is achieved under excitation of a pump light with an intensity as low as 5.85 MW/cm2. The group delay is controlled between 0.09 and 0.4 ps. All observed schemes are analyzed rigorously through finite-difference time-domain simulations and coupled-mode formalism. Results show a new direction toward the low power consumption and ultrafast responses of integration plasmonic photonic devices and all-optical dynamical storage of light devices in optical communication and quantum information processing.
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Optical bistability at nanoscale is a promising way to realize optical switching, a key component of integrated nanophotonic devices. In this work we present an analytical model for optical bistability in a metal nano-antenna involving Kerr nonlinear medium based on detailed analysis of the correlation between the incident and extinction light intensity under surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The model allows one to construct a clear picture on how the threshold, contrast, and other characteristics of optical bistability are influenced by the nonlinear coefficient, incident light intensity, local field enhancement factor, SPR peak width, and other physical parameters of the nano-antenna. It shows that the key towards low threshold power and high contrast optical bistability in the nanosystem is to reduce the SPR peak width. This can be achieved by reducing the absorption of metal materials or introducing gain media into nanosystems.
Colloidally synthesized nanocubes strongly coupled to conducting films hold great promise for enhancing different nonlinear optical processes. They exhibit a robust and sensitive scattering response that can be easily controlled by their geometrical and material parameters. Strong local field enhancement is generated at the gap regions between the nanocubes and the metallic film. We show that strong optical bistability and all-optical switching behavior can be obtained by loading these nanogaps with Kerr nonlinear materials. Relatively low input intensities are required to obtain these nonlinear effects. The proposed design can lead to efficient, low-power, and ultrafast all-optical memories and scattering nanoswitches.
Effect of relaxation time on the performance of photonic crystal optical bistable switches based on Kerr nolinearity is discussed. This paper deals with optical pulses with the duration of about 50 ps. In such cases the steady state response of the optical device can be used to approximate the pulse evolution if the nonlinearity is assumed instantaneous, hence analytical solutions such as the coupled mode theory can be used to obtain the time evolution of the electromagnetic fields. However if the relaxation time of the material nonlinear response is also considered, changes in the power levels and in the shape of the hystersis loop is observed. In this case, we use the nonlinear finite difference time domain method (NL-FDTD) to follow the system dynamics and get the bistability hystersis loop. Codes are developed to analyze the instantaneous Kerr materials and the Kerr materials with finite response times. Depending on the material, the relaxation times of the order of 1-10fs should be considered in studying bistability to obtain the right shape of the output pulses. It is observed that the relaxation leads to larger input power and threshold and hence degrades the performance of the switch in pulse shaping.