Metal Nanoparticles to Develop Nanocomposite Photonic Crystal Microcavity

The Creative Research Group of Femtosecond Photophysics & Integrated Optics at Peking University has discovered a nanoscale embedded all-optical diode featuring power efficient high transmission contrast.

This follows its development of the all-optical switch device displaying power efficient and high-speed photonic crystal.

The research paper ‘Low-Power and High-contrast Nanoscale All-Optical Diodes via Nanocomposite Photonic Crystal Microcavities’, will shortly appear in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

The group has added the plasmonic reactions of metal nanoparticles and the photon capture effect of photonic crystal microcavity to develop a nanocomposite photonic crystal microcavity that is sensitive to large third-order nonlinearity. A model device of photonic crystal all-optical diode is accomplished depending on the surface-plasmon resonance increased visual nonlinearity and coupling of asymmetrical microcavity modes. A low photon intensity of 2.1 MW/cm² and a high transmission contrast of 11875 can be achieved at the same time. The research will impact embedded photonic systems such as all-optical diodes while triggering more research on nonlinear optical material.

The project has been funded by the National Basic Research Program of China and the National Nature Science foundation of China.

Source: http://english.pku.edu.cn/