Magnetoplasmonic Faraday Rotators: Enabling Gigahertz Active Polarization Control for Integrated Plasmonics

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• 作者：Curtis J. FirbyPoHan Chang ; Amr S. Helmy ; Abdulhakem Y. Elezzabi
• 刊名：ACS Photonics
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：December 21, 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：3
• 期：12
• 页码：2344-2352
• 全文大小：704K
• ISSN：2330-4022

文摘

We present the design and theoretical characterization of a magnetoplasmonic Faraday rotator for active polarization control in integrated plasmonics. By incorporating bismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet (Bi:YIG) into a unique hybrid ridge–plasmonic waveguide structure, we effectively overcome the phase-matching limitations between photonic TE and plasmonic TM modes, and hence attain efficient Faraday rotation within a plasmonic device. The device provides 99.4% polarization conversion within a length of 830 μm, while the two modes exhibit propagation lengths in excess of 1 mm. This versatile optical building block can be operated with either a TE or TM input, making it ideal for polarization switching and polarization division multiplexing. Additionally, a buried Ag transmission line under the waveguide facilitates high-speed active polarization modulation by generating transient magnetic fields and modulating the Bi:YIG magnetization. We show that with these transient fields and an external static biasing field one can operate the device in either a pulsed-input pulsed-output mode, to produce a polarization switch, or a pulsed-input continuous-output mode, to produce a polarization oscillator. Such a device is shown to be capable of polarization modulation of 10 GHz and will be vital in realizing plasmonic circuits employing polarization diversity.