title: Long-range plasmonic directional coupler switches controlled by nematic liquid crystals.
abstract: A liquid-crystal tunable plasmonic optical switch based on a long-range metal stripe directional coupler is proposed and theoretically investigated. Extensive electro-optic tuning of the coupler's characteristics is demonstrated by introducing a nematic liquid crystal layer above two coplanar plasmonic waveguides. The switching properties of the proposed plasmonic structure are investigated through rigorous liquid-crystal studies coupled with a finite-element based analysis of light propagation. A directional coupler optical switch is demonstrated, which combines very low power consumption, low operation voltages, adjustable crosstalk and coupling lengths, along with sufficiently reduced insertion losses.
authors.affiliation: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per la Microelettronica e Microsistemi (CNR-IMM), Roma 00133, Italy. dimitrios.zografopoulos@artov.imm.cnr.it
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Zografopoulos
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Beccherelli
mesh_terms: D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000295:instrumentation*