Demonstration of a nanophotonic switching operation by optical near-field energy transfer

Tadashi Kawazoe, Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Suguru Sangu, and Motoichi Ohtsu Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 82, 2957 (2003); doi: 10.1063/1.1571977 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1571977 View Table of Contents: http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/APPLAB/v82/i18 Published by the American Institute of Physics.

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APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS

VOLUME 82, NUMBER 18

5 MAY 2003

Demonstration of a nanophotonic switching operation by optical near-eld energy transfer

Tadashi Kawazoe,a) Kiyoshi Kobayashi, and Suguru Sangu
Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO), Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST), 687-1 Tsuruma, Machida, Tokyo 194-0004, Japan

Motoichi Ohtsub)
Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8502, Japan

Received 3 January 2003; accepted 27 February 2003 We have demonstrated the operation of a nanophotonic switch that uses three CuCl quantum cubes with a size ratio of 1:&:2. The switching mechanism is based on resonant optical near-eld energy transfer between the resonant quantized excitonic energy levels of the quantum cubes. Using near-eld optical spectroscopy, we observed a switching rise time of less than 100 ps and a repetition rate of 80 MHz. These results suggest the possibility of making a nanophotonic switching device smaller than 20 nm with a gure of merit 10100 times higher than that of a conventional photonic switch. 2003 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.1571977

Optical ber transmission systems require increased integration of photonic devices for higher data transmission rates. It is estimated that the size of photonic matrix switching devices should be reduced to a subwavelength scale, as in the near future it will be necessary to integrate more than 1000 1000 input and output channels on a substrate.1 Since conventional photonic devices, e.g., diode lasers and optical waveguides, have to conne lightwaves within their cavities and core layers, respectively, their minimum sizes are limited by the diffraction of light.2 Therefore, they cannot meet the size requirement, which is beyond this diffraction limit. It can be readily understood that to support optical science and technology in the 21st century, optical nanotechnology that goes beyond the diffraction limit is required. An optical near eld is free from the diffraction of light and enables the operation and integration of nanometric optical devices. Namely, by using a localized optical near eld as the carrier, which is transmitted from one nanometric element to another, the above requirements can be met. Based on this idea, we have proposed optical nanotechnology that uses the optical near eld, i.e., nanophotonics, to realize nanometer-sized photonic devices and their integration.1 The primary advantage of nanophotonics is the capacity to achieve functions that are based on local electromagnetic interactions, while realizing nanometer-sized photonic devices. Since a nanometric all-optical switch i.e., a nanophotonic switch is a key device in such nanophotonic integrated circuits ICs , we have been researching operation using a coupled quantum-dot QD system. In this letter, we report the demonstration of repetitive operation of a nanophotonic switch, using three CuCl QDs.3 The optically forbidden energy transfer between neighboring CuCl QDs via optical
a b

Electronic mail: kawazoe@ohtsu.jst.go.jp Also at Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology, Japan Science and Technology Corporation, 687-1 Tsuruma, Machida, Tokyo 194-0004, Japan. 2957

near-eld interaction, conrmed by the authors, is a key phenomenon for this operation. We used cubic CuCl QDs, i.e., quantum cubes QCs , in a NaCl matrix. It is well known that the translational motion of the exciton center of mass in CuCl QCs is quantized due to the small exciton Bohr radius.4 When closely spaced QCs with quantized energy levels resonate with each other, neareld energy transfer occurs between them, even if the transfer is optically forbidden.3 Figures 1 a and 1 b explain the off and on states of the proposed nanophotonic switch. Three QCs, QCin , QCout , and QCcontrol , are used as the input, output, and control ports of the switch, respectively. Assuming an effective size ratio of 1:&:2, quantized energy levels 1,1,1 in QCin , 2,1,1 in QCout , and 2,2,2 in QCcontrol resonate with each other. Furthermore, energy levels 1,1,1 in QCout and 2,1,1 in QCcontrol also resonate. In the off operation Fig. 1 a , almost all of the exciton energy in QCin is transferred to the 1,1,1 level in the neighboring QCout , and nally, to the 1,1,1 level in QCcontrol . Thus, the input energy escapes to QCcontrol , and consequently, no optical output signals are generated from QCout . In the on state Fig. 1 b , by contrast, the escape routes to QCcontrol are blocked by the excitation of QCcontrol , due to state lling in QCcontrol by applying the control signal; thus, the input energy is transferred to QCout and an optical output signal is generated. The coupling energy V(r) of the optical near-eld interaction is given by the Yukawa function A exp( r)/r,5 where r is the separation between the two QCs, A is the coupling coefcient, and is proportional to the effective mass of an optical near-eld photon. Assuming that the separation r between the two QCs is 10 nm, the coupling energy, V(r), is estimated to be on the order of 10 4 eV, which corresponds to a transfer time of 20 ps.1 Since the near-eld interaction is a local interaction, as indicated by V(r), it is applicable to the operation of a nanophotonic switch and relevant devices in nanophotonic ICs. We fabricated CuCl QCs embedded in a NaCl matrix
2003 American Institute of Physics

0003-6951/2003/82(18)/2957/3/$20.00

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Kawazoe et al.

FIG. 1. Schematic explanation of a nanophotonic switch. The closely located CuCl QCs (QCin , QCout , and QCcontrol) with the effective side lengths of a (L a B ) , &a, and 2a, respectively, where L and a B are the side lengths of the QCs and the exciton Bohr radius, respectively. n x , n y , and n z represent quantum numbers of conned excitons. a and b show, respectively, the off and on states of the switch using three QCs.

using the Bridgman method.6 By optimizing the successive annealing condition, we realized an average QC size of 4.3 nm. The sample was cleaved just before it was used in the near-eld optical spectroscopy experiment in order to ensure a clean surface. The cleaved surface of the sample, which was 100 m thick, was sufciently at for the experiment, i.e., its roughness was less than 50 nm, at least within the scanning area of a few m. A double-tapered UV ber probe was fabricated using chemical etching and coated with 150nm-thick Al lm. An aperture less than 50 nm in diameter was formed by the pounding method.7 To realize the switching operation, the ber probe was carefully scanned to search for a trio of QCs that satised an effective size ratio of 1:&:2 for the switching operation. Since the homogeneous linewidth of a CuCl QC increases with temperature,8 the allowance in the resonatable size ratio is 10% at 15 K. The separation of the QCs must be less than 30 nm for the proposed switching operation, because the energy transfer time increases with separation; however, it must be shorter than the exciton lifetime. It is estimated that at least one trio of QCs exists in a 2 m 2 m scan area that satises these conditions. To demonstrate the switching operation, we found a QC trio in the sample whose sizes, L, were 3.5, 4.6, and 6.3 nm. Since their effective sizes L a B were 2.8, 3.9, and 5.6 nm (a B : exciton Bohr radius ,4 the size ratio was close to 1:&:2 and they could be used as QCin , QCout , and QCcontrol , respectively. In the experiment, 379.5 and 385 nm second-harmonic generation SHG Ti:sapphire lasers, which were tuned to the 1,1,1 exciton energy levels of QCin and QCcontrol , respectively, were used as the input and the control light sources. The output signal was collected by the ber probe, and its intensity was measured by a cooled microchannel plate after passing through three interference lters of 1 nm bandwidth tuned to the 1,1,1 exciton energy level in QCout at 383 nm. Figures 2 a and 2 b show the spatial distribution of the output signal intensity in the off state, i.e., with an input signal only, and the on state, i.e., with input and control signals, using near-eld spectroscopy at 15 K. The insets in Fig. 2 are schematic drawings of the existing QC trio used for the switching, which was conrmed by the near-eld luminescence spectrum. Here, the separation of the QCs by

less than 20 nm drawings in Fig. 2 was theoretically estimated from time-resolved measurements, as explained in the next paragraph. In the off state, no output signal was observed, because the energy of the input signal was transferred to QCcontrol and swept out as luminescence at 385 nm. To quench the output signal in the off state, which is generated by exciton accumulation in QCcontrol , the input signal density in QCcontrol was regulated to less than 0.1 excitons. In the on state, we obtained a clear output signal in the broken circle. The output signal was proportional to the intensity of the control signal, where its density in QCcontrol was 0.010.1 excitons. The internal quantum efciency was close to 1.9 Next, the dynamic properties of the nanophotonic switch

FIG. 2. Spatial distribution of the output signal from the nanophotonic switch measured by a near-eld microscope, in the off a and on b states.

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Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 82, No. 18, 5 May 2003

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FIG. 3. Time evolution of the control pulse signal upper part and the output signal lower part from the nanophotonic switch at the broken circle in Fig. 2 b . The duration and repetition rate of the control pulse were 10 ps and 80 MHz, respectively.

were evaluated by using the time correlation single photon counting method. As a pulse-control light source, the 385 nm SHG of a mode-locked Tisapphire laser was used. The repetition rate of the laser was 80 MHz. To avoid cross talk of the input and control signals, which originates from spectral broadening for the pulse duration, the pulse duration of the mode-locked laser was set to be 10 ps. The time resolution of the experiment was 15 ps. Figure 3 shows the time evolution of the control pulse signal upper part applicable to QCcontrol and the output signal lower part from QCout . The output signal rises synchronously within less than 100 ps, with the control pulse, which agrees with the theoretically expected result based on the Yukawa model.5 As this signal rise time is determined by the energy transfer time between the QCs, the separation between the QCs can be estimated from the rise time as being less than 20 nm;10 the rise time can be shortened to a few ps by decreasing the separation of the QCs. Since the decay time of the output signal is limited by the exciton lifetime, this nanophotonic switch is able to operate at a few hundred MHz, and it is anticipated that the operation frequency can be increased to several GHz by means of exciton quenching using a plasmon coupling.11 The onoff ratio was about 10, which is sufcient for use as an all-optical switch, and can be increased by a saturable absorber and electric eld enhancement of the surface plasmon.12 The advantages of this nanophotonic switch are its small size and high-density integration capability based on the locality of the optical near eld. The gure of merit FOM of an optical switch should be more important than the switching speed. Here, we have dened the FOM as F C/(VtswP sw), where C, V, t sw , and P sw are the onoff

ratio, the volume of the switch, the switching time, and the switching energy, respectively. The FOM of our demonstrated switch is 10100 times higher than that of a conventional photonic switch, because its volume and switching energy are 10 5 times and 10 3 times smaller, respectively. By a conventional fabrication method, it is difcult to fabricate the nanophotonic devices, such as the QD trio functioning as the optical switch, because it is required that the designed sized QDs are placed at designed positions, which are closely spaced. Therefore, we are now researching materials, fabrication methods, and systems, such as ZnO dots,13 near-eld optical chemical vapor deposition,14 and a plasmon waveguide,15 respectively, for the realization of actual nanophotonic devices. Based on these results, we hope that this nanophotonic switching system will have applications in nanophotonic ICs and be a candidate for future data transmission systems. In conclusion, we have demonstrated the switching operation of a nanophotonic switch using CuCl QCs embedded in a NaCl matrix. The size of the switch was estimated to be smaller than 20 nm. We experimentally showed that this optical switch can operate at a few hundred MHz. The FOM as an all-optical switch is 10100 times higher than that of conventional optical switches. The proposed nanophotonic switch is expected to be a key device in future nanophotonic ICs.

M. Ohtsu, K. Kobayashi, T. Kawazoe, S. Sangu, and T. Yatsui, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 8, 839 2002 . 2 A. Yariv, Introduction to Optical Electronics Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1971 . 3 T. Kawazoe, K. Kobayashi, J. Lim, Y. Narita, and M. Ohtsu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 067404 2002 . 4 N. Sakakura and Y. Masumoto, Phys. Rev. B 56, 4051 1997 . 5 K. Kobayashi, S. Sangu, H. Ito, and M. Ohtsu, Phys. Rev. A 63, 013806 2001 . 6 T. Itoh, Y. Iwabuchi, and M. Kataoka, Phys. Status Solidi B 145, 567 1988 . 7 T. Saiki and K. Matsuda, Appl. Phys. Lett. 74, 2773 1999 . 8 Landolt-Bornstein, Physics of IIVI and IVII Compounds, Semimagnetic Semiconductors, Vol. 17b Springer, Berlin, 1982 . 9 T. Kawazoe, K. Kobayashi, S. Sangu, and M. Ohtsu, J. Microsc. to be published . 10 S. Sangu, K. Kobayashi, A. Shojiguchi, T. Kawazoe, and M. Ohtsu, J. Appl. Phys. 93, 2937 2003 . 11 A. Neogi, C. W. Lee, H. O. Everitt, T. Kuroda, A. Tackeuchi, and E. Yablonovitch, Phys. Rev. B 66, 153305 2002 . 12 H. Raether, Surface Plasmons, Springer Tracts in Modern Physics, Vol. III Springer, Berlin, 1988 . 13 T. Yatsui, T. Kawazoe, T. Shimizu, Y. Yamamoto, M. Ueda, M. Kourogi, M. Ohtsu, and G. H. Lee, Appl. Phys. Lett. 80, 1444 2002 . 14 T. Kawazoe, Y. Yamamoto, and M. Ohtsu, Appl. Phys. Lett. 79, 1184 2001 . 15 T. Yatsui, M. Kourogi, and M. Ohtsu, Appl. Phys. Lett. 79, 4583 2001 .

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