Nanoantennas for selectively switching on and off under different input phase distributions and wavelengths

Abstract

Optical nanoantennas, as devices connecting free-space light and on-chip light, are important components of integrated photonic circuits. They are often used as optical couplers, and in optical routine of intermediate layers of IC chips. To have more degrees of freedom to manipulate the light scattering, we design a novel optical nanoantenna composed of subwavelength silicon pillars. The antenna can exhibit on and off scattering states under different input optical modes and exhibit opposite on-off characteristics at different wavelengths. The antenna is small in size and flexible in design, and has the potential to build a more flexible 3D optical link for photonic integrated circuits.