title: Waveguide metatronics: Lumped circuitry based on structural dispersion.
abstract: Engineering optical nanocircuits by exploiting modularization concepts and methods inherited from electronics may lead to multiple innovations in optical information processing at the nanoscale. We introduce the concept of "waveguide metatronics," an advanced form of optical metatronics that uses structural dispersion in waveguides to obtain the materials and structures required to construct this class of circuitry. Using numerical simulations, we demonstrate that the design of a metatronic circuit can be carried out by using a waveguide filled with materials with positive permittivity. This includes the implementation of all "lumped" circuit elements and their assembly in a single circuit board. In doing so, we extend the concepts of optical metatronics to frequency ranges where there are no natural plasmonic materials available. The proposed methodology could be exploited as a platform to experimentally validate optical metatronic circuits in other frequency regimes, such as microwave frequency setups, and/or to provide a new route to design optical nanocircuitry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.; Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Iñigo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Liberal
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.; Department of Information Engineering and Mathematics, University of Siena, I-53100 Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Cristian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Della Giovampaola
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Nader
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3219-9520
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Engheta
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004581:Electronics; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D036103:Nanotechnology; D055096:Optical Devices
keywords: Plasmonics; circuit; dispersion; filter; metamaterial; metatronics; nanocircuit; structural dispersion; waveguide