A team that includes Rutgers University and National Institute of Standards and Technology scientists believes that a technology it is reporting this week in Nature Photonics could result in optical switches with sub-square-micron footprints, potentially allowing densely packed switching fabrics on a chip.

These dimensions contrast with established optical switching technologies based on other technologies, such as MEMS, lithium niobate, and silicon and electro-optic polymer plasmonic technologies, that have active elements in scales up to hundreds of microns.

The scientists have shown that an optical signal can be modulated in a 200 nanometer-high waveguide. The signal's phase is modulated as it passes through an air gap between two gold layers, when a force generated by the device slightly deforms the top gold layer.

The scientists propose that when one of these modulators is placed next to a similar static device, it could act as a 2x2 switch, based on evidence reported elsewhere of coupling between adjacent waveguides. The technology could also be useful for electrically tunable plasmonic devices.

Their paper describes "compact nanomechanical plasmonic phase modulators." The scientists experimentally verified such devices in a 23 micron-long waveguide with a gap in the range of 200 nm, but they make a case based on computer modeling that the waveguides can be scaled to as little as 1 micron long with a 20 nm gap, without significant loss. This means optical switches could be scaled closer to electronic device dimensions.

The paper's authors are Brian Dennis, Michael Haftel, David Czaplewski, Daniel Lopez, Girsh Blumberg and Vladimir Aksyuk. Funding for this research was provided primarily by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The work was performed at the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology - a national nanotechnology user facility.