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Nanoplasmonics,
Graphene, and Metamaterials
Recently, nanoplasmonics has risen from a relatively obscure
science to a prominent field of research. Electronic interconnects are
aspect-ratio limited in speed (< 20 GHz) and optical interconnects are
diffraction-limited in size (>150 nm for silicon waveguides). Surface plasmons can be envisioned as quasi-two dimensional
electromagnetic excitations, propagating along a dielectric-metal interface
and having the field components decaying exponentially with penetration depth
as small as several nanometers into both neighboring media. Surface plasmon–based circuits, which merge electronic and
photonic circuits at the nanoscale, may offer the
potential to carry optical signals and electric currents through the same
thin metal circuitry, thereby creating the ability to combine the superior
technical advantages of photonics and electronics on the same chip. Both nanoplasmonics and metamaterials
deal with tailored metal/dielectric and metal/semiconductor nanostructures,
e.g. material with negative permittivity. Our lab at Microsystems Engineering
is focused on experimental and theoretical aspects of this rapidly developing
field ranging from fundamental science to applications and products, such as nanoplasmonic waveguides, ultrafast active nanoplasmonics, surface plasmon-enhanced
solar cells, 3D metamaterials, 3D invisibility
cloaks, negative refraction, and subwavelength
imaging. Research on graphene
has revealed its unique optical properties, including strong coupling with
light, high-speed operation, and gate-variable optical conductivity, which
promise to satisfy the needs of future electro-optic (EO) modulators, and
some pioneering works, have indeed shown the prospects. However, compared
with the size of on-chip electronic components it is still bulky. On-chip
optical interconnects require EO modulators at the nanoscale.
Shrinking the dimensions of current graphene modulators will result in a very
poor modulation depth. The key to achieve nanoscale
graphene EO modulation is to greatly enhance light-graphene interaction based
on novel waveguides and platforms. Our lab is also developing ultrahigh-speed
nanoscale graphene modulators. |
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