Toward integrated plasmonic circuits
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d plasmonic circuits Volker J. Sorger, Rupert F. Oulton, RenMin Ma and Xiang Zhang MRS Bulletin / Volume 37 / Issue 08 / August 2012, pp 728 738 Copyright © Materials Research Society 2012 Published online by Cambridge University Press: August 2012 DOI: 10.1557/mrs.2012.170
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0883769412001704 How to cite this article: Volker J. Sorger, Rupert F. Oulton, RenMin Ma and Xiang Zhang (2012). Toward integrated plasmonic circuits. MRS Bulletin,37, pp 728738 doi:10.1557/mrs.2012.170 Request Permissions : Click here
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Toward integrated plasmonic circuits Volker J. Sorger, Rupert F. Oulton, Ren-Min Ma, and Xiang Zhang Emerging telecommunication and data routing applications anticipate a photonic roadmap leading to ultra-compact photonic integrated circuits. Consequently, photonic devices will soon have to meet footprint and efficiency requirements similar to their electronic counterparts calling for extreme capabilities to create, guide, modulate, and detect deep-subwavelength optical fields. For active devices such as modulators, this means fulfilling optical switching operations within light propagation distances of just a few wavelengths. Plasmonics, or metal optics, has emerged as one potential solution for integrated on-chip circuits that can combine both high operational speeds and ultra-compact architectures rivaling electronics in both speed and critical feature sizes. This article describes the current status, challenges, and future directions of the various components required to realize plasmonic integrated circuitry.
Plasmonics: Converting photons into the nanoscale Recently, photonic technologies have become universal in global data communications.1 The unprecedented data bandwidths, ever falling power consumption requirements, and reduced cost margins of on-chip photonics2,3 have established a photonic roadmap for scaling down photonic components.4 A solution to fulfil both size and power requirements for future photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technologies lies in photonic components scaled beyond the diffraction limit of light. The advantages of such sub-diffraction limited photonics are threefold: small physical device sizes, faster operating speeds, and reduced optical power requirements arising through strong light-matter-interaction. To elaborate on the last point, intense optical localization within such components strongly enhances the typically weak interaction between light and matter,5–7 which in turn reduces the energy necessary to obtain a desired effect, for instance electronic modulation of an optical signal or non-linear optical frequency mixing.8,9 In order to address these demands, photonic components and even circuits based on surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), collective oscillations of electrons at metal-dielectric interfaces, were proposed and are showing promise for the scalability and performance challenges of future PICs (Figure
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