Design and FDTD simulation of a remote-controllable visible-light plasmonic waveguide and refractive-index-sensitive switch

Abstract

In this paper, a plasmonic switch based on metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguide structure is proposed, whose transmission characteristics can be remotely controlled by a rake switch design. The distance from the remote control unit to the bus waveguide is more than 1 um and still maintains a very high efficiency. The refractive-index-dependent transmission spectrum of this filter was simulated using the finite-difference time-domain method. The results show that the on/off switching of wave propagation in the bus waveguide can be achieved by changing the refractive index of the control unit 1 µm away from the bus waveguide. A change in refractive index of only 0.2 is required to simultaneously control the switching off and on of four waves in the waveguide in the visible band, with corresponding switching ratios of 40.5, 74.3, 48.6, and 15.1, showing great potential for applications in refractive index sensors and remotely controllable band stop filters.