High Extinction Ratio All-Optical Modulator Using a Vanadium-Dioxide Integrated Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguide

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High Extinction Ratio All-Optical Modulator Using a Vanadium-Dioxide Integrated Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguide Fatemeh Moradiani 1 & Mahmood Seifouri 1

&

Kambiz Abedi 2 & Fatemeh Geran Gharakhili 1

Received: 8 June 2020 / Accepted: 31 August 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract The combination of vanadium dioxide with waveguides has attracted remarkable attention for terahertz applications. Here, a novel all-optical modulator with high performance based on coupling between photonic and plasmonic modes is proposed and analyzed numerically and theoretically. The hybrid modulator is composed of the grating metal-insulator-metal layers of Au/ VO2/Au nanostructures which are located in silicon waveguide periodically. The improved coupled-mode theory is used to validate the performance of the proposed structure theoretically. The maximum extinction ratio and minimum insertion loss of 18.7 dB and 4.15 dB in 1.55-μm wavelength is obtained. The high optical bandwidth of 76 nm with the extinction ratio more than 15 dB over the optical range is computed. Also, the length and the cross section of the modulator are 0.9 μm and 0.11 μm2, respectively. The proposed structure could be a highly promising candidate as it works significantly in remote communication systems due to the high extinction ratio and low insertion loss as well as small footprint for integrated circuits. Keywords Vanadium dioxide . Grating metal-insulator-metal . Modulator . Photonic mode . Plasmonic mode . Improved coupled-mode theory

Introduction Optical modulation is the backbone of the photonic systems. It makes them interesting for different kinds of applications, such as an optical interconnect, biosensing, telecommunication system, and security applications [1–3]. In the aboveaforementioned applications, low footprint and low power consumption with high-speed devices are required. Therefore, integrated optical devices with low loss and high resolution can be a response to these bottlenecks. Silicon waveguides are transparent and capable of light confinement, while plasmonic waveguides are lossy and show small dimensions [4]. The combination of these two features can allow for the manipulation of light with small dimensions in controllable devices [5–7], as they can potentially enable hybrid photonic-plasmonic circuitry with enhanced interactions, low footprint, and low power consumption [8]. In recent * Mahmood Seifouri [email protected] 1

Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran

2

Faculty of Computer and Electrical Engineering, University of Shahid Beheshti, Tehran, Iran

years, photonics researchers have taken great strides in the development of plasmonic devices [9]. Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are electromagnetic waves that travel along the metal-insulator interface. They are noticeable because they can break the diffraction limit of light [10]. Recently, many kinds of plasmonic devices such as absorber [11–13], switches [7, 14], and mo