Nonlinear Plasmonic Devices

We propose to develop ultra compact nonlinear plasmonic devices for optical interconnect compatible with the electronic circuitry. In our proposal, we will employ engineered metallic nanostructures that combine energy concentration by plasmonic lenses and retardation-based plasmonic resonances to even further boost the efficiency of materials exhibiting frequency conversion. These nonlinear plasmonic devices will offer a tremendous improvement in size and performance to overcome the limitation of traditional integrated optical components for optical interconnect. In fact, the mode volumes can be reduced orders of magnitude below the wavelength. The unique optical properties of metallic nanostructures provide an unparalleled ability to concentrate light into small volumes and enable realization of the smallest possible, low-power, nonlinear optical components. The proposed metallic nanostructures will find application in low power frequency conversion devices and similar structures may be used for compact switching, modulation and limiting. This is the first time to our knowledge such a nonlinear plasmonic devices is proposed. The proposed nonlinear plasmonic devices is expected to alleviate the problems associated with the large size of present day optical components and provide an optimal solution for the optical interconnect.