title: Atomic Scale Plasmonic Switch.
abstract: The atom sets an ultimate scaling limit to Moore's law in the electronics industry. While electronics research already explores atomic scales devices, photonics research still deals with devices at the micrometer scale. Here we demonstrate that photonic scaling, similar to electronics, is only limited by the atom. More precisely, we introduce an electrically controlled plasmonic switch operating at the atomic scale. The switch allows for fast and reproducible switching by means of the relocation of an individual or, at most, a few atoms in a plasmonic cavity. Depending on the location of the atom either of two distinct plasmonic cavity resonance states are supported. Experimental results show reversible digital optical switching with an extinction ratio of 9.2 dB and operation at room temperature up to MHz with femtojoule (fJ) power consumption for a single switch operation. This demonstration of an integrated quantum device allowing to control photons at the atomic level opens intriguing perspectives for a fully integrated and highly scalable chip platform, a platform where optics, electronics, and memory may be controlled at the single-atom level.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Electromagnetic Fields (IEF), ETH Zurich , 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Alexandros
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Emboras
authors.affiliation: Institute of Electromagnetic Fields (IEF), ETH Zurich , 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Niegemann
authors.affiliation: Institute of Electromagnetic Fields (IEF), ETH Zurich , 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Institute of Electromagnetic Fields (IEF), ETH Zurich , 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Haffner
authors.affiliation: Computational Nanoelectronics Group, ETH Zurich , 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.affiliation: Computational Nanoelectronics Group, ETH Zurich , 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Luisier
authors.affiliation: Institute of Electromagnetic Fields (IEF), ETH Zurich , 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hafner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Physics and Institute of Nanotechnology (INT), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) , 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schimmel
authors.affiliation: Institute of Electromagnetic Fields (IEF), ETH Zurich , 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Juerg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leuthold
keywords: Atomic contacts; ab initio calculation; local oxidation; memristor; quantum plasmonics; silicon photonics; surface plasmons