All-optical switching in subwavelength metallic grating structure containing nonlinear optical materials

• Published in: Optics letters Vol. 33; no. 8; p. 869
• Main Authors: Min, Changjun, Wang, Pei, Chen, Chunchong, Deng, Yan, Lu, Yonghua, Ming, Hai, Ning, Tingyin, Zhou, Yueliang, Yang, Guozhen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 15.04.2008
• ISSN: 0146-9592
• DOI: 10.1364/ol.33.000869

All-optical switching based on a subwavelength metallic grating structure containing nonlinear optical materials has been proposed and numerically investigated. Metal-dielectric composite material is used in the switching for its larger third-order nonlinear susceptibility (approximately 10(-7)esu) and ultrafast response properties. The calculated dependence of the signal light intensity on the pump light intensity shows a bistable behavior, which results in a significant switch effect. It rests on a surface plasmon's enhanced intensity-dependent change of the effective dielectric constant of Kerr nonlinear media, corresponding to a transition of the far-field transmission from a low- to high-transmission state. The study of this switching structure shows great advantages of smaller size, lower requirement of pump light intensity, and shorter switching time at approximately the picosecond level.