Aluminum plasmonic waveguides co-integrated with Si3N4 photonics using CMOS processes.

Co-integrating CMOS plasmonics and photonics became the "sweet spot" to hit in order to combine their benefits and allow for volume manufacturing of plasmo-photonic integrated circuits. Plasmonics can naturally interface photonics with electronics while offering strong mode confinement, enabling in this way on-chip data interconnects when tailored to single-mode waveguides, as well as high-sensitivity biosensors when exposing Surface-Plasmon-Polariton (SPP) modes in aqueous environment. Their synergy with low-loss photonics can tolerate the high plasmonic propagation losses in interconnect applications, offering at the same time a powerful portfolio of passive photonic functions towards avoiding the use of bulk optics for SPP excitation and facilitating compact biosensor setups. The co-integration roadmap has to proceed, however, over the utilization of fully CMOS compatible material platforms and manufacturing processes in order to allow for a practical deployment route. Herein, we demonstrate for the first time Aluminum plasmonic waveguides co-integrated with Si3N4 photonics using CMOS manufacturing processes. We validate the data carrying credentials of CMOS plasmonics with 25 Gb/s data traffic and we confirm successful plasmonic propagation in both air and water-cladded waveguide configurations. This platform can potentially fuel the deployment of co-integrated plasmonic and photonic structures using CMOS processes for biosensing and on-chip interconnect applications.

Sorting of Single Biomolecules based on Fourier Polar Representation of Surface Enhanced Raman Spectra.

Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy becomes increasingly used in biosensors for its capacity to detect and identify single molecules. In practice, a large number of SERS spectra are acquired and reliable ranking methods are thus essential for analysing all these data. Supervised classification strategies, which are the most effective methods, are usually applied but they require pre-determined models or classes. In this work, we propose to sort SERS spectra in unknown groups with an alternative strategy called Fourier polar representation. This non-fitting method based on simple Fourier sine and cosine transforms produces a fast and graphical representation for sorting SERS spectra with quantitative information. The reliability of this method was first investigated theoretically and numerically. Then, its performances were tested on two concrete biological examples: first with single amino-acid molecule (cysteine) and then with a mixture of three distinct odorous molecules. The benefits of this Fourier polar representation were highlighted and compared to the well-established statistical principal component analysis method.

Nanosecond thermo-optical dynamics of polymer loaded plasmonic waveguides.

The thermo-optical dynamics of polymer loaded surface plasmon waveguide (PLSPPW) based devices photo-thermally excited in the nanosecond regime is investigated. We demonstrate thermo-absorption of PLSPPW modes mediated by the temperature-dependent ohmic losses of the metal and the thermally controlled field distribution of the plasmon mode within the metal. For a PLSPPW excited by sub-nanosecond long pulses, we find that the thermo-absorption process leads to modulation depths up to 50% and features an activation time around 2 ns whereas the relaxation time is around 800 ns, four-fold smaller than the cooling time of the metal film itself. Next, we observe the photo-thermal activation of PLSPPW racetrack shaped resonators at a time scale of 300 ns followed however by a long cooling time (18 µs) attributed to the poor heat diffusivity of the polymer. We conclude that nanosecond excitation combined to high thermal diffusivity materials opens the way to high speed thermo-optical plasmonic devices.

Coupling of a dipolar emitter into one-dimensional surface plasmon.

Quantum plasmonics relies on a new paradigm for light-matter interaction. It benefits from strong confinement of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) that ensures efficient coupling at a deep subwavelength scale, instead of working with a long lifetime cavity polariton that increases the duration of interaction. The large bandwidth and the strong confinement of one dimensional SPP enable controlled manipulation of a nearby quantum emitter. This paves the way to ultrafast nanooptical devices. However, the large SPP bandwidth originates from strong losses so that a clear understanding of the coupling process is needed. In this report, we investigate in details the coupling between a single emitter and a plasmonic nanowire, but also SPP mediated coupling between two emitters. We notably clarify the role of losses in the Purcell factor, unavoidable to achieve nanoscale confinement down to 10(-4)(λ/n)(3). Both the retarded and band-edge quasi-static regimes are discussed.

Power monitoring in dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguides with internal Wheatstone bridges.

We report on monitoring the mode power in dielectric-loaded surface plasmon polariton waveguides (DLSPPWs) by measuring the resistance of gold electrodes, supporting the DLSPPW mode propagation, with internal (on-chip) Wheatstone bridges. The investigated DLSPPW configuration consisted of 1-µm-thick and 10-µm-wide cycloaliphatic acrylate polymer ridges tapered laterally to a 1-µm-wide ridge placed on a 50-nm-thin and 4-um wide gold stripe, all supported by a ~1.7-µm-thick Cytop layer deposited on a Si wafer. The fabricated DLSPPW power monitors were characterized at telecom wavelengths, showing very high responsivities reaching up to ~6.4 µV/µW (for a bias voltage of 245 mV) and the operation bandwidth exceeding 40 kHz.

Thermo-optic control of dielectric-loaded plasmonic Mach-Zehnder interferometers and directional coupler switches.

We report detailed experimental studies of compact fiber-coupled dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguide components-Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) and directional couplers (DCs)-whose operation at telecom wavelengths is controlled via the thermo-optic effect by electrically heating the gold stripe of dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguides. The effect of the gaps isolating the heated part of the waveguide from the rest of the structure was examined showing the presence of a Fabry-Pérot cavity in this MZI arm. Wavelength-dependent modulation is demonstrated with MZI-based components, and wavelength dependent low power (∼0.92 mW) rerouting is achieved with DC switches. Furthermore, simulations were performed to confirm the switching characteristics of the components.

Active plasmonics in WDM traffic switching applications.

With metal stripes being intrinsic components of plasmonic waveguides, plasmonics provides a "naturally" energy-efficient platform for merging broadband optical links with intelligent electronic processing, instigating a great promise for low-power and small-footprint active functional circuitry. The first active Dielectric-Loaded Surface Plasmon Polariton (DLSPP) thermo-optic (TO) switches with successful performance in single-channel 10 Gb/s data traffic environments have led the inroad towards bringing low-power active plasmonics in practical traffic applications. In this article, we introduce active plasmonics into Wavelength Division Multiplexed (WDM) switching applications, using the smallest TO DLSPP-based Mach-Zehnder interferometric switch reported so far and showing its successful performance in 4×10 Gb/s low-power and fast switching operation. The demonstration of the WDM-enabling characteristics of active plasmonic circuits with an ultra-low power × response time product represents a crucial milestone in the development of active plasmonics towards real telecom and datacom applications, where low-energy and fast TO operation with small-size circuitry is targeted.

Silencing and enhancement of second-harmonic generation in optical gap antennas.

Amplifying local electromagnetic fields by engineering optical interactions between individual constituents of an optical antenna is considered fundamental for efficient nonlinear wavelength conversion in nanometer-scale devices. In contrast to this general statement we show that high field enhancement does not necessarily lead to an optimized nonlinear activity. In particular, we demonstrate that second-harmonic responses generated at strongly interacting optical gap antennas can be significantly suppressed. Numerical simulations are confirming silencing of second-harmonic in these coupled systems despite the existence of local field amplification. We then propose a simple approach to restore and amplify the second-harmonic signal by changing the manner in which electrically-connected optical antennas are interacting in the charge-transfer plasmon regime. Our observations provide critical design rules for realizing optimal structures that are essential for a broad variety of nonlinear surface-enhanced characterizations and for realizing the next generation of electrically-driven optical antennas.

Performance of electro-optical plasmonic ring resonators at telecom wavelengths.

In this work we report on the characteristics of an electro-optical dielectric-loaded surface plasmon polariton waveguide ring resonator. By doping the dielectric host matrix with an electro-optical material and designing an appropriate set of planar electrodes, we measured a 16% relative change of transmission upon application of a controlled electric field. We have analyzed the temporal response of the device and conclude that electrostriction of the host matrix is playing a dominating role in the transmission response.

Power monitoring in dielectric-loaded surface plasmon-polariton waveguides.

We report on propagating mode power monitoring in dielectric-loaded surface plasmon-polariton waveguides (DLSPPWs) by measuring the resistance of gold stripes supporting the DLSPPW mode propagation. Inevitable absorption of the DLSPPW mode in metal causes an increase in the stripe temperature and, thereby, in its resistance whose variations are monitored with an external Wheatstone bridge being accurately balanced in the absence of radiation in a waveguide. The investigated waveguide configuration consists of a 1-µm-thick and 10-µm-wide polymer ridges tapered laterally to a 1-µm-wide ridge placed on a 50-nm-thin and 4-µm-wide gold stripe, all supported by a magnesium fluoride substrate. Using single-mode polarization-maintaining fiber for in- and out-coupling of radiation, DLSPPW mode power monitoring at telecom wavelengths is realized with the responsivities of up to ~1.8 µV/µW (showing weak wavelength dependence) being evaluated for a bias voltage of 1 V.

Influence of the number of nanoparticles on the enhancement properties of surface-enhanced Raman scattering active area: sensitivity versus repeatability.

In the present work, the combination of chemical immobilization with electron beam lithography enables the production of sensitive and reproducible SERS-active areas composed of stochastic arrangements of gold nanoparticles. The number of nanoparticles was varied from 2 to 500. Thereby a systematic analysis of these SERS-active areas allows us to study SERS efficiency as a function of the number of nanoparticles. We found that the experimental parameters are critical, in particular the size of the SERS-active area must be comparable to the effective area of excitation to obtained reproducible SERS measurements. The sensitivity has also been studied by deducing the number of NPs that generate the enhancement. With this approach we demonstrates that the maximum enhancement, the best sensitivity, is obtained with the smallest number of nanoparticles that is resonant at a given excitation wavelength.

Excitation of a one-dimensional evanescent wave by conical edge diffraction of surface plasmon.

The experimental observation of a one-dimensional evanescent wave supported by a 90◦ metal edge is reported. Through a measurement of in-plane momenta, we clearly demonstrate the dimensional character of this surface wave and show that it is non-radiative in the superstrate. Excitation conditions, lateral extension and polarization properties of this wave are discussed. Finally, we explore the effect of the surrounding dielectric medium and demonstrate that a single edge can sustain distinct excitations.

Fiber-pigtailed temperature sensors based on dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguide-ring resonators.

We demonstrate optical fiber-pigtailed temperature sensors based on dielectric-loaded surface plasmon-polariton waveguide-ring resonators (DLSPP-WRRs), whose transmission depends on the ambient temperature. The DLSPP-WRR-based temperature sensors represent polymer ridge waveguides (~1×1 µm(2) in cross section) forming 5-µm-radius rings coupled to straight waveguides fabricated by UV-lithography on a 50-nm-thick gold layer atop a 2.3-µm-thick CYTOP layer covering a Si wafer. A broadband light source is used to characterize the DLSPP-WRR wavelength-dependent transmission in the range of 1480-1600 nm and to select the DLSPP-WRR component for temperature sensing. In- and out-coupling single-mode optical fibers are then glued to the corresponding access (photonic) waveguides made of 10-µm-wide polymer ridges. The sample is heated from 21°C to 46 °C resulting in the transmission change of ~0.7 dB at the operation wavelength of ~1510 nm. The minimum detectable temperature change is estimated to be ~5.1∙10(-3) °C for the bandwidth of 1 Hz when using standard commercial optical detectors.

Refractive micro-optical elements for surface plasmons: from classical to gradient index optics.

Controlling the propagation of surface plasmons along a metal-dielectric interface is a key feature for the development of surface plasmon based circuits. We have designed various two-dimensional refractive dielectric optical elements for surface plasmons (SP) and characterized their capacity to route SP, using near- or far-field techniques. We first present basic devices analogous to usual optical components and the associated challenges for SP optics. We then use a metamaterial approach to locally vary the refractive index and fabricate gradient index structures for SP circuitry.

Fiber-coupled dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguides.

Fiber in- and out-coupling of radiation guided by dielectric-loaded surface plasmon-polariton waveguides (DLSPPWs) is realized using intermediate tapered dielectric waveguides. The waveguide structures fabricated by large-scale UV-lithography consist of 1-microm-thick polymer ridges tapered from 10-microm-wide ridges deposited directly on a magnesium fluoride substrate to 1-microm-wide ridges placed on a 50-nm-thick and 100-microm-wide gold stripe. Using fiber-to-fiber transmission measurements at telecom wavelengths, the performance of straight and bent DLSPPWs is characterized demonstrating the overall insertion loss below 24 dB, half of which is attributed to the DLSPPW loss of propagation over the 100-microm-long distance.

Thermo-optic control of dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguide components.

We report preliminary results on the development of compact (length < 100 microm) fiber-coupled dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguide components, including Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs), waveguide-ring resonators (WRRs) and directional couplers (DCs), whose operation at telecom wavelengths is controlled via the thermo-optic effect by electrically heating the gold stripes of dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguides. Strong output modulation (> 20%) is demonstrated with MZI- and WRR-based components, and efficient (approximately 30%) rerouting is achieved with DC switches.

Gain-assisted propagation in a plasmonic waveguide at telecom wavelength.

The spatial confinement of surface plasmon polaritons is a promising route for realizing optical on-board interconnects. However, mode losses increase with the confinement factor. To overcome this road block, we investigate propagation assisted by stimulated emission in a polymer strip-loaded plasmonic waveguide doped with nanocrystals. We achieve 27% increase of the propagation length at telecom wavelength corresponding to a 160 cm(-1) optical gain coefficient. Such a configuration is a step toward integrated plasmonic amplifiers.

Tuning of an optical dimer nanoantenna by electrically controlling its load impedance.

Optical antennas are elementary units used to direct optical radiation to the nanoscale. Here we demonstrate an active control over individual antenna performances by an external electrical trigger. We find that by an in-plane command of an anisotropic load medium, the electromagnetic interaction between individual elements constituting an optical antenna can be controlled, resulting in a strong polarization and tuning response. An active command of the antenna is a prerequisite for directing light wave through the utilization of such a device.

Wavelength-selective directional coupling with dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguides.

We consider wavelength-selective splitting of radiation using directional couplers (DCs) formed by dielectric-loaded surface-plasmon-polariton waveguides (DLSPPWs). The DCs were fabricated by depositing sub-wavelength-sized polymer ridges on a gold film using large-scale UV photolithography and characterized at telecommunications wavelengths with near-field microscopy. We demonstrate a DLSPPW-based 45-microm-long DC comprising 3 microm offset S bends and 25-microm-long parallel waveguides that changes from the "through" state at 1500 nm to 3 dB splitting at 1600 nm, and show that a 50.5-microm-long DC should enable complete separation of the radiation channels at 1400 and 1620 nm. The DC performance is found to be in good agreement with full vectorial three-dimensional finite-element simulations.

Dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguide-ring resonators.

Using near-field microscopy, the performance of dielectric-loaded plasmonic waveguide-ring resonators (WRRs) operating at telecom wavelengths is investigated for various waveguide-ring separations. It is demonstrated that compact (footprint approximately 150 microm(2)) and efficient (extinction ratio approximately 13 dB) WRR-based filters can be realized using UV-lithography. The WRR wavelength responses measured and calculated using the effective-index method are found in good agreement.