ERI: Thermal Assisted Plasmon-Plasmon interaction for active control of Electron Density Waves at Metal Semiconductor Interfaces - A Roadmap to Novel All-Optical Devices

当前的“信息时代”要求在较短的时间内传输和处理大量数据的能力。在医疗保健、网络安全、银行、通信、国防和太空探索等应用中，超高速数据传输是通过对光子上的数据进行编码来实现的。然而，对更快的数据处理的需求推动了微处理器技术的创新和进步，并朝着更小、超快和低功耗的电子产品发展。尽管不断进步，旨在开发高效的电子设备；在过去的几年中，微处理器时钟速度在5GHz左右已经观察到饱和。这可归因于与电子互连和散热相关的损耗。全光模拟物正日益成为一种有吸引力的替代方案，以克服与电子相关的限制。然而，光子处理器件的实现需要有效的机制来实现微纳米尺度上光子与光子的相互作用。在这里，我们提出了一种新的数据处理元件，一种全光开关，它有可能作为具有高数据速率的电子设备的光学模拟，同时使设备尺寸比传统光子元件小得多。这项工作的重要影响将是为阿拉巴马州黑带地区的本科生，包括代表性不足的群体，残疾退伍军人和低收入人口，开辟参与半导体光子学和计算光学领域前沿研究活动的途径，实施新的教学方法，并通过吸引高中生和当地社区参与光学领域的有趣主题，追求更广泛的外展。本课题旨在开发一种新的全光等离子体开关，称为热辅助全等离子体开关，其操作基于热光电控制，通过在等离子体结构（或粒子）上激发局部表面等离子体模式，在金属掺杂的半导体界面上传播表面等离子体模式。此外，将寻求分析和计算方法之间的协同作用，以揭示极端光物质相互作用，动力学和热机制，促进局部表面等离子体共振和表面等离子体极化子相互作用，这些相互作用与金属-半导体界面的大部分不均匀和快速变化的局部介电环境有关。获得的理解将应用于设计和测试高性能光子元件的数值原型，如全光开关，可以在纳米级和微观长度尺度上提供高数据速率。数值测量，结合理论，将建立控制器件3dB带宽的限制和缩放规律，确定热电光信号调制速率降至皮秒时间尺度的器件架构，信号调制超过-10dB，与目前的全光元件相比，模式尺寸要小得多。值得注意的是，该研究提出了一种新的方法，并为快速高效的光学器件、电路、逻辑元件和其他可能导致与集成光学和全光电子相关的创新技术创造了新的途径，这是一个价值数十亿美元的产业。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The present ‘information age’ demands for the capability to transfer and process huge amount of data relatively in short span of time. In applications from health care, cyber security, banking, communications, defense and space exploration, ultra-fast data transfer is accomplished by encoding the data on photons. Whereas the need for faster data processing in fueled the innovations and advancements in microprocessor technology with progression towards smaller, ultrafast, and low-power electronics. Despite continuous progression aiming at developing efficient electronic devices; saturation in the microprocessor clock speed at about 5GHz has been observed over the past few years. This can be attributed to the losses associated with electronic interconnects and heat dissipation. All-optical analogues are increasingly becoming an attractive alternative to overcome the limitations associated with electronics. However, implementation of photonic processing device needs efficient mechanism to achieve photon-to-photon interactions at micro and nanoscale scale sizes. Here we propose a new data processing element, an all-optical switch, with potential to serve as an optical analogue of electronic devices with high data rates, while concurrently enabling device sizes that are considerably smaller than traditional photonic elements. A significant impact of this work will be to open avenues for the undergraduate students, including underrepresented groups, disabled veterans and low-income populous in the Alabama black belt region to participate in the cutting-edge research activities in the field of semiconductor photonics and computational optics, implementing a new teaching methodology and pursuing a broader outreach by engaging high school children and local community with fascinating topics in optics.This proposal seeks to develop a new all-optical plasmonic switch, referred to as Thermal Assisted All Plasmonic Switch with operation based on thermo-opto-electronic control of propagating surface plasmon modes at metal-doped semiconductor interfaces by the localized surface plasmon modes excited at the plasmonic structures (or particles). Furthermore, a synergy between the analytical and computational approaches will be pursued to uncover the extreme light matter interactions, kinetic and thermal mechanisms facilitating the localized surface plasmon resonances and surface plasmon polaritons interactions with largely inhomogeneous and rapidly changing local dielectric environments of the Metal-Semiconductor interfaces. The gained understanding will be applied to design and test numerical prototypes of high-performance photonic elements such as all-optical switches, that can potentially provide high data rates at the nanoscopic and microscopic length scales. Numerical measurements, in conjunction with the theory, will establish the limitations and scaling laws governing the device 3dB bandwidth, determine device architectures for thermo-electro-optical signal modulation rates down to the picosecond time scale for signal modulation surpassing -10dB and mode sizes that are substantially smaller compared to present-day all-optical elements. Notably, the proposed research presents a new approach and creates new pathway toward fast and efficient optical devices, circuitry, logic elements and additional may lead to innovative technologies related to integrated optics and all-optical electronics, a multibillion-dollar industry.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.