The two unique features of the plasmonic isolator and the plasmonic modulator are their small size of about 10-100 μm and their technological compatibility with the Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC). These features make them attractive as components for a denser and smaller PIC. An additional advantage of the plasmonic modulator is its ultra-fast operational speed, which exceeds 200 GHz. We have developed and experimentally demonstrated two fabrication technologies, which allow a substantial decrease of both the plasmonic propagation loss and the coupling loss. The developed technologies are based on the optimization of the out-of-plane confinement and the in-plane confinement for a surface plasmon. A low propagation loss of 0.7 dB/μm for a surface plasmon in a Co/TiO2/SiO2 plasmonic structure on a Si substrate and a moderate coupling efficiency of 4 dB per facet between a Co/TiO2/SiO2 and a Si nanowire waveguide were achieved.
An optical isolator is an important component of an optical network. At present, there is a significant commercial demand for an optical isolator, which can be integrated into the Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC). A new design of an integrated optical isolator, which utilizes unique non-reciprocal properties of surface plasmons, has been proposed [1]. The main obstacle for a practical realization of the proposed design is a substantial propagation loss of the surface plasmons in structures containing a ferromagnetic metal. The reduction of the propagation loss of a surface plasmon is the key to make the plasmonic isolator competitive with other designs of the integrated isolator.
We studied experimentally optical and magneto-optical properties of a Fe plasmonic waveguide integrated with an AlGaAs rib waveguides and a Co plasmonic waveguide integrated with Si nanowire waveguides. It was demonstrated experimentally that by utilizing a double-dielectric plasmonic waveguide it is possible to reduce significantly the optical loss in a plasmonic waveguide. For Fe/SiO2/AlGaAs double-dielectric plasmonic waveguide the low optical loss of 0.03 dB/um is obtained. As far as we know at present it is a lowest optical loss demonstrated for a plasmon propagating at a surface of a ferromagnetic metal. For Co/Ti2O3/SiO2 double-dielectric plasmonic waveguide integrated with a Si nanowire waveguide on a Si substrate the optical loss of 0.7 dB/um was demonstrated. The designs of the plasmonic isolator utilizing a ring resonator or a non-reciprocal coupler were studied.
[1] V. Zayets, H. Saito, S. Yuasa, and K. Ando,, Materials 5, 857 (2012).
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