title: All-optical switching in subwavelength metallic grating structure containing nonlinear optical materials.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Anhui Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Changjun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Min
authors.forename: Pei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Chunchong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Yonghua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Hai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ming
authors.forename: Tingyin
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ning
authors.forename: Yueliang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Guozhen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yang