SBIR-STTR Award

We propose to develop ultradense plasmonic integrated devices and circuits for optical interconnect compatible with the electronic circuitry. In our proposal, we will employ engineered metallic nanostructures that combine energy concentration by plasmonic lenses and retardation-based plasmonic resonances to even further boost the efficiency of materials exhibiting optical nonlinearity. These plasmonic integrated devices will offer a tremendous improvement in size and performance to overcome the limitation of traditional integrated optical components for optical interconnect. In fact, the mode volumes can be reduced orders of magnitude below the wavelength. The unique optical properties of metallic nanostructures provide an unparalleled ability to concentrate light into small volumes and enable realization of the smallest possible, low-power, nonlinear optical components. The proposed metallic nanostructures will find application in low power integrated photonic devices and similar structures may be used for compact switching and modulation. This is the first time to our knowledge such a plasmonic integrated devices and are proposed. The proposed plasmonic integrated devices and circuits are expected to alleviate the problems associated with the large size of present day optical components and provide an optimal solution for the optical interconnect.

Benefit:
Anticipated development of the proposed plasmonic integrated devices and circuits concept will be of immediate use where conventional optical devices has been prohibited by the optical diffraction limit. This technology is critical to the success of nanoscale optical interconnect compatible with electronic circuitry. The proposed metallic nanostructures will find application in low power integrated photonic devices and similar structures may be used for compact switching, and modulation. When brought to product, some of the commercial applications that will benefit directly from the use of this technology are high frequency optical clock distribution, large scale optical interconnect, remote vehicles etc, in which high reliability and EMI are key factors to the overall success of the product. Commercial application are driven by the rapid increase in the clock speed of computers has slowed in recent years due to the interconnect bottlenecks on the chip itself. A plasmonic architecture is expected to alleviate the problems associated with the large size of present day optical components. In the near term, for applications not requiring an entire plasmonic ensemble of waveguides, sources, detectors, and devices, individual advances in plasmonic devices will help to couple photonics to the rapidly developing field of nanotechnology.

Keywords:
Metallic Nanostructures, Plasmon Waveguides, Signal Processing, Photonic Integration, Optical Processors, Nanotechnology, Plasmonics, Nanofabrication.