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Loss compensation of surface plasmon polaritons in organic/metal nanowire heterostructures toward photonic logic processing

有机/金属纳米线异质结中的SPPs损耗补偿用于 光学逻辑运算

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Abstract

Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are crucial for the development of next generation information and communication technologies. However, the ohmic losses inherent to all plasmonic devices seriously limit their practical application in on-chip photonic communications. Here, loss compensation of SPPs and their application in photonic logic processing was demonstrated in rationally designed organic/silver nanowire heterostructures. The heterostructures were synthesized by inserting silver nanowires (AgNWs) into crystalline organic microwires, which served as a microscale optical gain medium. These heterostructures with large organic/metal interfacial areas ensured the efficient energy transfer from excitons to SPPs. Gain for subwavelength SPPs in the heterostructure was achieved through stimulated emission of strongly confined SPPs. Furthermore, cascade gain was performed to realize basic nanoscale photonic devices, such as Boolean logic units. The results would pave an alternative avenue to incorporating SPP-enhanced devices into hybrid photonic circuitry.

摘要

表面等离子体激元(SPPs)对于下一代信息通信技术的发展 至关重要. 然而, SPPs器件固有的欧姆损耗限制了它们在片上光学 通讯中的实际应用. 本工作中, 我们在合理设计的有机/金属纳米线 异质结中实现了SPPs的损耗补偿及其在光学逻辑运算中的应用. 通过将银纳米线(AgNWs)插入结晶有机微丝中来合成异质结构, 并将其用作微米级光学增益介质. 所制备的异质结具有较大的有 机/金属界面面积, 能确保从激子到SPPs的高效能量转移. 异质结 构中亚波长SPPs的增益是通过强烈限制SPPs的受激发射实现的. 此外, 我们还实现了SPPs的级联增益, 并将其用于构建微纳光子学 器件, 例如Boolean逻辑单元. 相关结果为具有SPPs增强功能的器件 用于混合光子学回路提供了新的思路.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2017YFA0204502) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21533013 and 21790364).

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Authors

Contributions

Zhao YS conceived the idea and supervised the project. Lv Y designed the experiments and prepared the materials. Lv Y and Xu FF performed the optical measurements. Lv Y, Xu FF and Wang K put forward the theoretical model and contributed to the theoretical calculations. Lv Y, Li YJ and Zhao YS analyzed the data. Lv Y, Li YJ, and Zhao YS wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yong Sheng Zhao  (赵永生).

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Yuanchao Lv received his PhD degree in physical chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) in 2018. He is currently an associate professor in the College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Fujian Normal University. His research interests are the photonic properties of porous micro/nanomaterial, organic/metal hybrid systems and their application as miniaturized photonic devices.

Yong Sheng Zhao received his PhD degree in 2006 at ICCAS. After that, he joined the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and Northwestern University as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2009, he returned to ICCAS as a professor of chemistry. His research interests include the controllable synthesis of low-dimensional organic materials, photophysical and photochemical processes, as well as the fabrication and performance optimization of photonic/optoelectronic devices.

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Loss Compensation of Surface Plasmon Polaritons in Organic/Metal Nanowire Heterostructures toward Photonic Logic Processing

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Lv, Y., Xu, F.F., Wang, K. et al. Loss compensation of surface plasmon polaritons in organic/metal nanowire heterostructures toward photonic logic processing. Sci. China Mater. 63, 1464–1471 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-019-1216-5

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