A vertically-coupled liquid-crystal long-range plasmonic optical switch
Abstract
An optical switch based on liquid-crystal tunable long-range metal stripe waveguides is proposed and theoretically investigated. A nematic liquid crystal layer placed between a vertical configuration consisting of two gold stripes is shown to allow for the extensive electro-optic tuning of the coupler's waveguiding characteristics. Rigorous liquid-crystal switching studies are coupled with the investigation of the optical properties of the proposed plasmonic structure, taking into account different excitation conditions and the impact of LC-scattering losses. A directional coupler optical switch is demonstrated, which combines low power consumption, low cross-talk, short coupling lengths, along with sufficiently reduced insertion losses.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1211.6071,
title = {A vertically-coupled liquid-crystal long-range plasmonic optical switch},
author = {Dimitrios C. Zografopoulos and Romeo Beccherelli},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1211.6071},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
4 pages, 6 figures