Sub-picosecond optical switching with a negative index metamaterial
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- CHTM-UNM
Development of all-optical signal processing, eliminating the performance and cost penalties of optical-electrical-optical conversion, is important for continu,ing advances in Terabits/sec (Tb/s) communications.' Optical nonlinearities are generally weak, traditionally requiring long-path, large-area devicesl,2 or very high-Q, narrow-band resonator structures.3 Optical metamaterials offer unique capabilities for optical-optical interactions. Here we report 600 femtosecond (fs) all-optical modulation using a fIShnet (2D-perforated metallamorphous-Si (a-Si)/metal film stack) negative-index meta material with a structurally tunable broad-band response near 1.2 {micro}m. Over 20% modulation (experimentally limited) is achieved in a path length of only 116 nm by photo-excitation of carriers in the a-Si layer. This has the potential for Tb/s aU-optical communication and will lead to other novel, compact, tunable sub-picosecond (ps) photonic devices.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- OSTI ID:
- 956461
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-09-01137; LA-UR-09-1137; TRN: US201013%%174
- Journal Information:
- Nature Photonics, Journal Name: Nature Photonics
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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