A nonlinear plasmonic antenna switch as building block for ultracompact photonic devices.

在纳米尺度上对光的主动控制在现代科学技术中有着广泛的应用前景，从光通信到相干量子信息。在这第一笔赠款中，我们将开发一种基于纳米级等离子体天线的新型超紧凑型光子器件。等离子体是一门将光限制在金属表面的科学，它有可能成为能够在单个芯片上结合电子和光子组件的关键纳米技术之一。在下一代通信网络中，光子集成对于实现中程信息传输和芯片到芯片互连具有重要意义。与无线电波类似，等离子体纳米天线是将入射光辐射匹配到纳米体积的理想结构。我们提出可以利用单天线的小面积和超快响应来设计一种新型的超快光晶体管。这里我们介绍了一种新型的天线光开关设计，它能够产生大的调制深度，并且只需要最先进的微光子开关中使用的光功率的一小部分。在本项目的第一部分中，我们将演示天线切换的原理证明。在第二部分中，我们将把纳米天线集成到硅光子波导上。我们将使用天线来控制光子波导的传输，利用其在共振等离子激元波长的非常强的散射。在我们的实验中，我们将与一家英国光纤激光器公司合作，优化用于单纳米天线超快光谱仪的新光源。作为该项目的后续，我们将探索在一类新型超快半导体激光器中使用天线开关作为可饱和吸收介质。为此，我们建立在南安普敦现有的非常强大的半导体激光专业知识的基础上。拟议的研究方案将把基础科学研究与新的技术应用结合起来，将尚未相互联系的研究领域结合在一起。这些成功将得益于新一代光驱动信息技术，以及用于生物传感和太赫兹发电等应用的低成本超快激光。虽然最初的研究将处于基础水平，但其结果将具有巨大的应用前景，对英国光电子行业具有潜在的好处。

Active control over light on nanometer length scales holds promise for many applications in modern science and technology, ranging from optical telecommunication to coherent quantum information. In this First Grant we will develop a new class of ultracompact photonic devices based on nanoscale plasmonic antennas. Plasmonics, the science dealing with confining light at the surface of metals, has the potential to become one of the key nanotechnologies capable of combining electric and photonic components on a single chip. Photonic integration is important to achieve medium-range information transfer and chip-to-chip interconnects in next-generation communication networks.Analogous to their radiowave counterparts, plasmonic nanoantennas are ideal structures for matching incident optical radiation to a nanoscale volume. We propose that the small footprint and ultrafast response of a single antenna can be used to design a new type of ultrafast optical transistor. We introduce here a novel design of an antenna optical switch capable of producing a large modulation depth and requiring only a fraction of the optical power used in state-of-the-art microphotonic switches. In the first part of the project we will demonstrate the proof-of-principle of antenna switching. In the second part, we will integrate a nanoantenna onto a silicon photonic waveguide. We will use the antenna to control the transmission of the photonic waveguide using its very strong scattering at the resonant plasmon wavelength. During our experiments we will work together with a UK fiber-laser company in optimizing a new light source for single-nanoantenna ultrafast spectroscopy.As a follow-on to this project, we will explore the use of antenna switches as saturable absorber medium in a novel class of ultrafast semiconductor lasers. For this we build on the very strong expertise already present in Southampton on semiconductor lasers. The proposed research programme will combine fundamental scientific research with novel technological applications, bringing together yet unconnected fields of research. Successes will benefit to a new generation of light-driven information technology and to low-cost ultrafast lasers for use in applications like biosensing and terahertz generation. Although the initial research will be at a fundamental level, its results will have a large application perspective, with potential benefits to the UK photonics industry.