Information Transfer by Near-Infrared Surface-Plasmon-Polariton Waves on Silver/Silicon Interfaces

Abstract

Electronic interconnections restrict the operating speed of microelectronic chips as semiconductor devices shrink. As surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) waves are localized, signal delay and crosstalk may be reduced by the use of optical interconnections based on SPP waves. With this motivation, time-domain Maxwell equations were numerically solved to investigate the transport of information by an amplitude-modulated carrier SPP wave guided by a planar silicon/silver interface in the near-infrared spectral regime. The critical-point model was used for the permittivity of silicon and the Drude model for that of silver. The signal can travel long distances without significant loss of fidelity, as quantified by the Pearson and concordance correlation coefficients. The signal is partially reflected and partially transmitted without significant loss of fidelity, when silicon is terminated by air; however, no transmission occurs when silicon is terminated by silver. The fidelity of the transmitted signal in the forward direction rises when both silicon and silver are terminated by air. Thus, signals can possibly be transferred by SPP waves over several tens of micrometers in microelectronic chips.

Molecular-Scale Plasmon Trapping via a Graphene-Hybridized Tip-Substrate System

“…The plasmon trapping of molecular-scale nanoparticles can find a broad range of potential applications like molecular-imaging, nano-sensor, and singlemolecule spectroscopy [1][2][3][4][5]. Physically, a special type of surface electromagnetic mode known as surface plasmon polariton can be excited from the origin of the surface electron resonance at designed geometrical nanostructures [6][7][8]. The surface plasmon polariton can be significantly squeezed into a very small size far beyond the optical diffraction limit, simultaneously bearing a large spatial gradient for supporting plasmon trapping.…”

Morphological effects on the excitation of surface waves in the grating-coupled configuration

“…1,2 The partnering dielectric material can be isotropic 1, 2 or anisotropic 2,3 and either homogeneous 1,2 or nonhomogeneous. 4 SPP waves find applications in optical sensing, 5 imaging, 6 and communications, 7 and may have limited utility in enhancing the efficiencies of thin-film solar cells. 8,9 Commonly investigated anisotropic dielectric materials to excite surface waves include nematic liquid crystals 10 and columnar thin films (CTFs).…”