Subpicosecond optical switching with a negative index metamaterial.
We demonstrate a nanoscale, subpicosecond (ps) metamaterial device capable of terabit/second all-optical communication in the near-IR. The 600 fs response, 2 orders of magnitude faster than previously reported, is achieved by accessing a previously unused regime of high-injection level, subpicosecond carrier dynamics in the alpha-Si dielectric layer of the metamaterial. Further, we utilize a previously unrecognized, higher-order, shorter-wavelength negative-index resonance in the fishnet structure, thereby extending device functionality (via structural tuning of device dimensions) over 1.0-2.0 microm. The pump energy required to modulate a single bit is only 3 nJ over our current 700 microm(2) area device and can be easily scaled into the picoJoule regime with smaller cross sectional areas.
Dani
Keshav M
KM
Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA. KMDani@lanl.gov
Ku
Zahyun
Z
Upadhya
Prashanth C
PC
Prasankumar
Rohit P
RP
Brueck
S R J
SR
Taylor
Antoinette J
AJ