The plasmonics modulator technology has been developed for more than 6 years at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Key to our technology is the coupling of light with electrons at a metal surface. Light is coupled to the metal surface as Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs). This way we are able to confine light below the diffraction limit.
All-plasmonic Mach–Zehnder modulator enabling optical high-speed communication at the microscale
Optical modulators encode electrical signals to the optical domain and thus constitute a key element in high-capacity communication links1,2. Ideally, they should feature operation at the highest speed with the least power consumption on the smallest footprint, and at low cost3. Unfortunately, current technologies fall short of these criteria4. Recently, plasmonics has emerged as a solution offering compact and fast devices5,6,7. Yet, practical implementations have turned out to be rather elusive. Here, we introduce a 70 GHz all-plasmonic Mach–Zehnder modulator that fits into a silicon waveguide of 10 μm length. This dramatic reduction in size by more than two orders of magnitude compared with photonic Mach–Zehnder modulators results in a low energy consumption of 25 fJ per bit up to the highest speeds. The technology suggests a cheap co-integration with electronics.
Plasmonic Organic Hybrid Modulators—Scaling Highest Speed Photonics to the Microscale
Abstract:
High-speed plasmonic modulator in a single metal layer
Abstract
Plasmonics provides a possible route to overcome both the speed limitations of electronics and the critical dimensions of photonics. We present an all-plasmonic electro-optical modulator (116–gigabits per second) in which all the elements—the vertical grating couplers, splitters, polarization rotators, and active section with phase shifters—are included in a single metal layer. The device can be realized on any smooth substrate surface and operates with low energy consumption. Our results show that plasmonics is indeed a viable path to an ultracompact, highest-speed, and low-cost technology that might find many applications in a wide range of fields of sensing and communications because it is compatible with and can be placed on a wide variety of materials.
Polariton Technologies AG
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