Abstract

Nanoplasmonic components are of interest for their potential of achieving enhanced light-matter interaction through confinement of electromagnetic fields below the diffraction limit. In this field, plasmonic electro-optical modulators are novel devices enabling nanoscale footprint and ultrafast low-energy performance. Several implementations of these devices have been published so far, including hybrid plasmonic waveguides [1] and tunable metasurfaces. The tunability is enabled by an applied bias which changes the refractive index of a transparent conductive oxide through carrier accumulation, which influences nearby plasmonic structures. As transparent conductive oxides, indium tin oxide (ITO) and aluminum zinc oxide (AZO) are typically chosen due to their plasma resonances being in the infrared to visible frequencies [2,3].

© 2017 IEEE