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Nanostructured plasmonic medium for terahertz bandwidth all-optical switching

Nanostructured plasmonic medium for terahertz bandwidth all-optical switching
Nanostructured plasmonic medium for terahertz bandwidth all-optical switching
Photonics has the potential for processing information at unprecedented speeds and accommodates massively parallel data processing algorithms. To compete against electronics, photonic switches must allow for dense integration and surpass the gigahertz performance of electronic components. This requires a nonlinear switching medium with an as-yet unavailable ultrafast giant nonlinear response. Here, we show that a suitable switching material can be engineered by harnessing the nanoscale confinement of light and the nonlinearity of metal. Using a nanostructured gold film, we demonstrate resonant switching, the performance of which is at least one order of magnitude faster and stronger than designed materials reported so far. It exceeds electronic component speeds by a factor of a thousand and achieves control of light with light in a film only 50 nm thick at an average light power level of only a few milliwatts, thus providing a ground-breaking solution for all-optical data processing.
metamaterials, plasmonics, nanophotonics, nonlinear optics
1521-4095
5540-5544
Ren, Mengxin
85c262e2-b760-4b14-bb8e-4747ce7a9d6d
Jia, Baohua
9bcf0c19-44f6-4773-acb9-5fb0290b50ce
Ou, Jun-Yu
3fb703e3-b222-46d2-b4ee-75f296d9d64d
Plum, Eric
50761a26-2982-40df-9153-7aecc4226eb5
Zhang, Jianfa
7ce15288-2016-4b9c-8244-7aed073363ca
MacDonald, Kevin F.
76c84116-aad1-4973-b917-7ca63935dba5
Nikolaenko, Andrey E.
62341850-7828-48f6-8d5a-3778f44d170c
Xu, Jingjun
01fbb945-5e5d-4df7-8ffc-11722faa8c8b
Gu, Min
95623915-b36d-4d8b-9ef9-1f7b7242cfae
Zheludev, Nikolay I.
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
Ren, Mengxin
85c262e2-b760-4b14-bb8e-4747ce7a9d6d
Jia, Baohua
9bcf0c19-44f6-4773-acb9-5fb0290b50ce
Ou, Jun-Yu
3fb703e3-b222-46d2-b4ee-75f296d9d64d
Plum, Eric
50761a26-2982-40df-9153-7aecc4226eb5
Zhang, Jianfa
7ce15288-2016-4b9c-8244-7aed073363ca
MacDonald, Kevin F.
76c84116-aad1-4973-b917-7ca63935dba5
Nikolaenko, Andrey E.
62341850-7828-48f6-8d5a-3778f44d170c
Xu, Jingjun
01fbb945-5e5d-4df7-8ffc-11722faa8c8b
Gu, Min
95623915-b36d-4d8b-9ef9-1f7b7242cfae
Zheludev, Nikolay I.
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6

Ren, Mengxin, Jia, Baohua, Ou, Jun-Yu, Plum, Eric, Zhang, Jianfa, MacDonald, Kevin F., Nikolaenko, Andrey E., Xu, Jingjun, Gu, Min and Zheludev, Nikolay I. (2011) Nanostructured plasmonic medium for terahertz bandwidth all-optical switching. Advanced Materials, 23 (46), 5540-5544. (doi:10.1002/adma.201103162).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Photonics has the potential for processing information at unprecedented speeds and accommodates massively parallel data processing algorithms. To compete against electronics, photonic switches must allow for dense integration and surpass the gigahertz performance of electronic components. This requires a nonlinear switching medium with an as-yet unavailable ultrafast giant nonlinear response. Here, we show that a suitable switching material can be engineered by harnessing the nanoscale confinement of light and the nonlinearity of metal. Using a nanostructured gold film, we demonstrate resonant switching, the performance of which is at least one order of magnitude faster and stronger than designed materials reported so far. It exceeds electronic component speeds by a factor of a thousand and achieves control of light with light in a film only 50 nm thick at an average light power level of only a few milliwatts, thus providing a ground-breaking solution for all-optical data processing.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 24 October 2011
Published date: 8 December 2011
Keywords: metamaterials, plasmonics, nanophotonics, nonlinear optics
Organisations: Optoelectronics Research Centre

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 205589
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/205589
ISSN: 1521-4095
PURE UUID: 0bef9519-c5be-4368-bb5e-c5969560454f
ORCID for Jun-Yu Ou: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-8028-6130
ORCID for Eric Plum: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1552-1840
ORCID for Kevin F. MacDonald: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3877-2976
ORCID for Nikolay I. Zheludev: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1013-6636

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 12 Dec 2011 15:37
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:39

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Contributors

Author: Mengxin Ren
Author: Baohua Jia
Author: Jun-Yu Ou ORCID iD
Author: Eric Plum ORCID iD
Author: Jianfa Zhang
Author: Andrey E. Nikolaenko
Author: Jingjun Xu
Author: Min Gu

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