Surface plasmon devices for applications in communication and signal processing
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Sch of Mathematics and Physics
Abstract
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are electromagnetic waves on a surface of good metals coupled to oscillations of conduction electrons. The surface polariton is intrinsically a two-dimensional excitation, and SPPs can be used to reduce the problem of optical signals' manipulation from three to two dimensions. This significantly simplifies it and introduces additional opportunity for signal conditioning and control using properties of these waves on nanostructured surfaces and thin films. The SPP-based applications can form the basis of new devices for signal processing applications in future multiwavelength optical networks. As these networks evolve towards the nonlinear and quantum limits, new device functionalities to support these network technologies are required, and these devices must be necessarily compact andintegrable. The functionalities required are: tuneable dispersive properties for demultiplexing and routing of data carrying signals to different network nodes; polarization-selective properties - for polarization multiplexing to increase the datarates and decrease nonlinear interaction between channels; optical switching which requires a fast, high-contrast on-off transfer function; adaptive signal regeneration (both 3R -reshaping, retiming and re-amplification and the 2R variant - which perform re-shaping without re-timing) for undoing any acquired non-linear and noise impairments as channels are dynamically allocated and routed around the network. Currently most of these functionalities require discrete, bulk electronic and fibre components to realise. It is very appealing if all of these could be implemented in a single compact and integrable device, ideally with some optical gain. This may be possible if surface plasmon polariton-based effects are deployed, which allow to achieve novel passive and active photonic devices such as tuneable wavelength and polarisation selective structures, if appropriate designs can be realised. Here we propose to demonstrate and investigate, for the first time, the basic principles of operation of photonic elements for optical networks with functionality underpinned by particular properties of surface plasmon polariton waves on the nanostructured metal surfaces and thin films. Polarisation and wavelength sensitive applications as well as active devices for amplification of SPP signals will be investigated, for applications in communications and signal processing.
People |
ORCID iD |
Anatoly Zayats (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Dickson W
(2008)
Electronically controlled surface plasmon dispersion and optical transmission through metallic hole arrays using liquid crystal.
in Nano letters
Benetou MI
(2015)
Boundary effects in finite size plasmonic crystals: focusing and routing of plasmonic beams for optical communications.
in Nanotechnology
Bouillard JS
(2010)
Hyperspectral imaging with scanning near-field optical microscopy: applications in plasmonics.
in Optics express
Marini A
(2009)
Amplification of surface plasmon polaritons in the presence of nonlinearity and spectral signatures of threshold crossover.
in Optics letters
Bolger PM
(2010)
Amplified spontaneous emission of surface plasmon polaritons and limitations on the increase of their propagation length.
in Optics letters
Mikhailov V
(2007)
Dispersing light with surface plasmon polaritonic crystals.
in Physical review letters
Description | Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are electromagnetic waves on a surface of good metals coupled to oscillations of conduction electrons. The surface polariton is intrinsically a two-dimensional excitation, and SPPs can be used to reduce the problem of optical signals' manipulation from three to two dimensions. This significantly simplifies it and introduces additional opportunity for signal conditioning and control using properties of these waves on nanostructured surfaces and thin films. The SPP-based applications can form the basis of new devices for signal processing applications in future multiwavelength optical networks. As these networks evolve towards the nonlinear and quantum limits, new device functionalities to support these network technologies are required, and these devices must be necessarily compact and integrable. The functionalities required are: tuneable dispersive properties for demultiplexing and routing of data carrying signals to different network nodes; polarization-selective properties - for polarization multiplexing to increase the data rates and decrease nonlinear interaction between channels; optical switching which requires a fast, high-contrast on-off transfer function; adaptive signal regeneration for undoing any acquired non-linear and noise impairments as channels are dynamically allocated and routed around the network. Currently most of these functionalities require discrete, bulk electronic and fibre components to realise. It is very appealing if all of these could be implemented in a single compact and integrable device, ideally with some optical gain. This may be possible if surface plasmon polariton-based effects are deployed, which allow to achieve novel passive and active photonic devices such as tuneable wavelength and polarisation selective structures, if appropriate designs can be realised. In this project we have demonstrated and investigated, for the first time, the basic principles of operation of photonic elements for optical networks with functionality underpinned by properties of surface plasmon polariton waves on the nanostructured metal surfaces and thin films. In particular, polarisation and wavelength selective properties of plasmonic crystals and waveguide-based devices were investigated and possibility to amplify SPP signals was studied. We have demonstrated enormous angular dispersion of SPP crystals exceeding the current state of the art dielectric devices by almost 10 times. Amplified spontaneous emission of SPP has been demonstrated and 30% increase in their propagation length achieved. Efficient control of SPP crystal dispersion with electric field was demonstrated that can be used for dynamic tuning of wavelength selective plasmonic-crystal-based devices. All these achievements have shown very significant potential for plasmonic devices in optical network technologies. |
Exploitation Route | The obtain results open a way to explore plasmonic functionalities in telecom devices and systems. |
Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
URL | http://www.nano-optics.org.uk |
Description | UCL |
Organisation | University College London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Design and fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures for telecommunications |
Collaborator Contribution | Characterisation of plasmonic nanostructures for telecommunications |
Impact | Publications, conference papers |
Start Year | 2007 |