Design of Plasmonic Yagi–Uda Nanoantennas for Chip-Scale Optical Wireless Communications

Abstract

Optical wireless transmission has recently become a major cutting-edge alternative for on-chip/inter-chip communications with higher transmission speeds and improved power efficiency. Plasmonic nanoantennas, the building blocks of this new nanoscale communication paradigm, require precise design to have directional radiation and improved communication ranges. Particular interest has been paid to plasmonic Yagi–Uda, i.e., the optical analog of the conventional Radio Frequency (RF) Yagi–Uda design, which may allow directional radiation of plasmonic fields. However, in contrast to the RF model, an overall design strategy for the directional and optimized front-to-back ratio of the radiated far-field patterns is lacking. In this work, a guide for the optimized design of Yagi–Uda plasmonic nanoantennas is shown. In particular, five different design conditions are used to study the effects of sizes and spacing between the constituent parts (made of Au). Importantly, it is numerically demonstrated (using the scattered fields) that closely spaced nanoantenna elements are not appropriated for directional light-to-plasmon conversion/radiation. In contrast, if the elements of the nanoantenna are widely spaced, the structure behaves like a one-dimensional array of nanodipoles, producing a funnel-like radiation pattern (not suitable for on-chip wireless optical transmission). Therefore, based on the results here, it can be concluded that the constituent metallic rib lengths must be optimized to exhibit the resonance at the working wavelength, whilst their separations should follow the relation λeff/π, where λeff indicates the effective wavelength scaling for plasmonic nanostructures.

4 × 4 Integrated Switches Based on On-Chip Wireless Connection through Optical Phased Arrays

“…Other, more compact antenna configurations can be implemented through integrated plasmonic antennas. Different configurations of plasmonic antennas have been proposed in the literature for on-chip wireless communications [54][55][56][57]. The plasmonic antennas have very small dimensions (a few microns), but they suffer non-negligible losses due to plasmonic mode propagation in the lossy metal.…”

Magnetoplasmonic Nanoantennas for On-Chip Reconfigurable Optical Wireless Communications

“…10 In this work, we present a numerical study of a magnetoplasmonic Yagi−Uda nanoantenna made of an arrangement of ferromagnetic nanorods of cobalt−silver alloy (Co 6 Ag 94 ) embedded in silica (SiO 2 ). In this highly directive radiation nanostructure design, the magnetoplasmonic elements are coupled through near-field overlaps 7 in what is known as plasmon hybridization. 32 In contrast to the dipolar magnetoplasmonic nanoaperture, 31 which only has control over the transmitted/scattered field, the system in this work is able to transform the incident field into a highly directive radiated beam for on-chip optical wireless communications.…”

“…The radiation properties of plasmonic nanoparticles , have been exploited to replace conventional nanoelectronic interconnects that can be lossy and with narrow bandwidth for chip-scale communications. , Examples are the high-performance optical wireless nanolinks and highly directive nanoantenna designs, , which can be excited by integrated optical and electrical mechanisms. − Wireless broadcasting is nevertheless limited to point-to-point communication, that is, a fixed transmitting nanoantenna with a fixed receiving nanoantenna. There has been a numerical demonstration of electrically tunable beam steering, but only with an array of antenna elements.…”

Near-Infrared Perfect Absorption and Refractive Index Sensing Enabled by Split Ring Nanostructures

“…Plasmonic nanostructures have garnered significant attention owing to their exceptional optical properties, including enhanced absorption and sub-diffraction light localization of electromagnetic (EM) waves [1][2][3]. Their use can be explored in a diverse range of applications, such as EM shielding [4,5], optical detectors [6,7], and high-frequency communication systems [8,9]. Recently, some advancements have centered on the narrowband perfect absorption of plasmonic nanostructures with tunable resonances [10][11][12][13].…”