Applied nonlinear plasmonics

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All-optical data processing as an alternative to electronic data processing is critical to the telecommunications and computing fields, due to the theoretically orders-of-magnitude increase in operating speed. To realize this technology in a compact platform, nonlinear (NL) waveguide photonics are used. Here, an optical "pump" beam alters the physical environment of an optical data pulse, causing it to be passed, blocked, re-directed, etc.; the degree of NL response is proportional to the power density of the pump. Unfortunately, photonic waveguides have a minimum size that is limited by physical considerations, requiring unacceptably high pump powers in order to produce a useful NL response. Plasmonic waveguides, however, can confine optical fields into a cross-section that is one to two orders of magnitude smaller, facilitating NL effects at correspondingly reduced powers. These unique structures manipulate surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) - rather than photons - at the nanoscale (a SPP results from the coupling of the electromagnetic field with oscillating electrons at the surface of a metal.)