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Efficient photo-thermal activation of gold nanoparticle-doped polymer plasmonic switches

J.-C. Weeber, K. Hassan, L. Saviot, A. Dereux, C. Boissière, O. Durupthy, C. Chaneac, E. Burov, and A. Pastouret

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

We report on the photo-thermal activation of dielectric loaded plasmonic switches comprised of gold nanoparticle-doped polymer deposited onto a gold film. The plasmonic switches rely on a multi-mode interferometer design and are fabricated by electron beam lithography applied to a positive resin doped with gold nanoparticles at a volume ratio of 0.52%. A cross-bar switching is obtained at telecom wavelengths by pumping the devices with a visible beam having a frequency within the localized surface plasmon resonance band of the embedded nanoparticles. By comparing the switching performances of doped and undoped devices, we show that for the modest doping level we consider, the power needed to activate the doped switches is reduced by a factor 2.5 compared to undoped devices. The minimization of activation power is attributed to enhanced light-heat conversion and optimized spatial heat generation for doped devices and not to a change of the thermo-optic coefficient of the doped polymer.

© 2012 Optical Society of America

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Figures (8)
Fig. 1
Fig. 1 (a) SEM image of a NP-doped plasmonic MMI switch (scale bar=50μm). The dark regions are coated with polymer, light-gray regions correspond to bare gold film. (b) Zoom onto the region corresponding to the dashed perimeter shown in (a) showing the single-mode (SM) and multi-mode (MM) waveguides (Scale bar=10μm). (c) Detail of the transition between the single-mode and multi-mode regions (Scale bar= 1 μm). The nanoparticles are clearly visible on the DLSPPWs.

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Fig. 2
Fig. 2 (a) Leakage radiation microscope set-up used for the observation and the photo-thermal activation of the switches. (b) (resp. (c)) Typical LRM images at λ0 =1580nm of a doped (resp. undoped) MMI waveguide (scale bar=100μm). (c) Single-exponential fits (solid lines) of the experimental LRM intensity (dots) along the doped and undoped MMI waveguide axis.

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Fig. 3
Fig. 3 (a) Opto-geometrical parameters for the finite-element analysis of an undoped MMI waveguides, W =900nm, h =400nm (see Fig. 3(a)), npmma = 1.489, nAu = 0.57+i11.7 for a wavelength of λ0=1580nm. The trapezoidal shaped cross-cut of the DLSPPW accounts for the undercut of the vertical side-walls produced by PMMA processing. (b) (resp. (c)) Spatial distribution of the guided power for the fundamental symmetric (resp. higher-order anti-symmetric) DLSPPW mode.

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Fig. 4
Fig. 4 (a) Absorbance spectra of NP-PMMA solutions with gold volume fractions of 38 part per million (ppm) and 74 ppm. (b) Absorbance spectra for NP-doped PMMA layers of different thicknesses deposited on a glass substrate. The gold volume fraction of solid PMMA is 5200ppm (0.52%).

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Fig. 5
Fig. 5 (a) Solid lines: Experimental normal incidence transmittance (T) and near-normal incidence reflectance (R) spectra of a 80nm-thick gold film deposited onto a glass substrate using a titanium adhesion layer with a thickness of 3nm. The Absorption spectra (A) is computed from T and R. Dashed lines: comparison of the experimental spectra with computed spectra using the gold dielectric function tabulated in Ref. [31] and neglecting the effect of the adhesion layer. (b) Dots: Experimental absorption values at 532nm for doped and undoped PMMA layers deposited on a gold film. Solid lines: computed absorption at 532nm for PMMA layers deposited on a gold film. For undoped PMMA, the best fit is obtained for nPMMA=1.502, for doped PMMA, nNP–PMMA=1.57+i0.031.

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Fig. 6
Fig. 6 (a) LRM intensity integrated over the CROSS and the BAR output port of an un-doped MMI switch for a signal sweeping the telecom frequency range. (b) CROSS-BAR Extinction ratio spectrum computed using the results of (a). (c) (resp.(d)) LRM image of the CROSS (resp. BAR) state. (e) For a fixed wavelength of 1540nm, change of extinction ratio at the output port as a function of the pump power. (f) (resp.(g)) LRM image taken at λ0=1540nm in the hot (resp. cold) state. The elliptically shaped pump (532nm) beam with a power of 40mW is visible in (f). (h) Activation power efficiency obtained by correlating the extinction ratio change in (e) to a wavelength shift in the cold state given in (b).

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Fig. 7
Fig. 7 (a) CROSS-BAR exctinction ratio for a doped MMI switch. (b) For a fixed wavelength of 1536nm, change of extinction ratio at the output port as a function of the pump power. (c) Differences of the LRM images recorded in the hot and cold state for a pumping power of 8mW. (d) Activation power efficiency obtained from (b) and (a).

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Fig. 8
Fig. 8 (a) Configuration for the heat source density computation. The parameters are W =900nm, h =400nm and g =2.5μm. The thickness of the gold film is 80nm. (b) Heat source density at 532nm computed for along the vertical (z-axis) of the waveguide for the doped and undoped polymer.

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Tables (1)

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Table 1 Activation efficiency obtained for three different NP-doped and undoped MMI switches

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Equations (4)

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p = λ 0 ( n e s − n e a )
κ p = λ 0 × Abs × ln 10 4 π h
E R ( d B ) = 10 log 10 I BAR I CROSS
h ( r → ) = 1 2 ω ε 0 ℑ ( ε ( r → ) ) | E ( r → ) | 2
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