Low-Power Fano Resonance-Based MIM Plasmonic Switch Using Kerr-Type Nonlinear Material

Abstract

In this paper, an all-optical plasmonic switch based on the metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguide configuration is proposed. The structure uses a Kerr-type nonlinear material (Au:SiO2 Composite) and Fano resonance to achieve all-optical switching. It is shown that adding two stubs to a MIM waveguide creates a Fano resonance which can be used for switching applications. A pump signal is used for this purpose. The two dimensional finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is employed to numerically simulate the proposed switch. In order to verify the FDTD simulation results, the basic MIM structure is also analyzed using the scattering matrix theory and a transfer matrix combination. At the wavelength of 1455 nm, the transmission changed from 0.52 to 0.03 by launching an optical pump. Moreover, the proposed all-optical switch has many advantages such as its compact size, lower pump intensity (which is equal to <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$145\ mW/\mu m^{2}$</tex> ), and a fast switching time.