Properties of metal–insulator–metal waveguide loop reflector

A new type and easy-to-fabricate metal–insulator–metal(MIM) waveguide reflector based on Sagnac loop is designed and investigated.The transfer matrix theoretical model for the transmission of electric fields in the reflector is established,and the properties of the reflector are studied and analyzed.The simulation results indicate that the reflectivity strongly depends on the coupling splitting ratio determined by the coupling length.Accordingly, different reflectivities can be realized by varying the coupling length.For an optimum coupling length of 750 nm, the 3-dB reflection bandwidth of the MIM waveguide reflector is as wide as 1.5 μm at a wavelength of 1550 nm, and the peak reflectivity and isolation are 78%and 23 dB, respectively.     

Plasmonic finite-thickness metal–semiconductor–metal waveguide as ultra-compact modulator

We propose a plasmonic waveguide with semiconductor gain material for optoelectronic integrated circuits. We analyze properties of a finite-thickness metal–semiconductor–metal (F-MSM) waveguide to be utilized as an ultra-compact and fast plasmonic modulator. The InP-based semiconductor core allows electrical control of signal propagation. By pumping the core we can vary the gain level and thus the transmittance of the whole system. The study of the device was made using both analytical approaches for planar two-dimensional case as well as numerical simulations for finite-width waveguides. We analyze the eigenmodes of the F-MSM waveguide, propagation constant, confinement factor, Purcell factor, absorption coefficient, and extinction ratio of the structure. We show that using thin metal layers instead of thick ones we can obtain higher extinction ratio of the device.     

Plasmonic modulator based on gain-assisted metal–semiconductor–metal waveguide

We investigate plasmonic modulators with gain material to be implemented as ultra-compact and ultra-fast active nanodevices in photonic integrated circuits. We analyze metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) waveguides with InGaAsP-based active material layers as ultra-compact plasmonic modulators. The modulation is performed by changing the gain of the core, that results in different transmittance through the waveguides. A MSM waveguide enables high field localization and therefore high modulation speed. Bulk semiconductor, quantum wells and quantum dots, arranged in either horizontal or vertical layout, are considered as the core of the MSM waveguide. Dependences on the waveguide core size and gain values of various active materials are studied. The designs consider also practical aspects like n- and p-doped layers and barriers in order to obtain close to reality results. The effective propagation constants in the MSM waveguides are calculated numerically. Their changes in the switching process are considered as a figure of merit. We show that a MSM waveguide with electrical current control of the gain incorporates compactness and deep modulation along with having a reasonable level of transmittance.     

Cross-shaped metal–semiconductor–metal plasmonic crystal for terahertz modulator

The transmission and tuning properties of a cross-shaped plasmonic crystal based on periodic metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) structures have been investigated in the terahertz (THz) regime. According to the mode analysis, we find that the different resonance modes in the plasmonic crystal show the different changes when this device is actively controlled by the carrier injection of the MSM structures. The longitudinal modes disappear, while the horizontal mode moves to a higher frequency. The former leads to an intensity modulation at 0.5 THz and 1.1 THz when the groove depth h = 60 μm, and the later leads to a band blue-shift from 1.325 THz to 1.38 THz. These results will be applied to THz modulation and tunable filtering.     

Depositing aluminum as sacrificial metal to reduce metal–graphene contact resistance

Reducing the contact resistance without degrading the mobility property is crucial to achieve high-performance graphene field effect transistors. Also, the idea of modifying the graphene surface by etching away the deposited metal provides a new angle to achieve this goal. We exploit this idea by providing a new process method which reduces the contact resistance from 597 ? ·μm to sub 200 ? ·μm while no degradation of mobility is observed in the devices. This simple process method avoids the drawbacks of uncontrollability, ineffectiveness, and trade-off with mobility which often exist in the previously proposed methods.     

Corrugated-enhanced second harmonic generation in metal–insulator–metal plasmonic waveguides

Nonlinear effects such as second-harmonic generation (SHG) are important for applications such as switching and wavelength conversion. In this study, the generation of second harmonic in metal–insulator–metal (MIM) plasmonic waveguides was investigated for both symmetric and asymmetric structures. Symmetric means that the metals at the top and bottom of the dielectric layer are the same and asymmetric means that the metals at the top and bottom of the dielectric layer are different. Two different structures are considered here as plasmonic waveguide for generation of second harmonic and analyzed using finite-difference time domain method. Besides the structure has grating on both sides for more coupling between photons and plasmons. The wavelength duration of grating per length unit (number of grooves) will be optimized to reach the highest second harmonic generation. To perform this optimization, the wavelength of operation λ = 458 nm is considered. It was shown that field enhancement in symmetric MIM waveguides can result in enhancement of SHG magnitude compared to the literature values and asymmetric device results in more than two orders of magnitude enhancement in SHG compared to symmetric structure. It is also shown that the electric field of second harmonic depends on the thickness of crystal (insulator). So, its thickness is optimized to achieve the highest electric field.     

Waveguiding effect in 2D metal–dielectric–metal grating structure

We have studied the waveguiding effect in a 2D metal–dielectric–metal (MDM) grating structure formed on a quartz substrate. The grating was first formed via e-beam lithography and subsequently covered by Ag/MgF₂/Ag MDM films. At a pitch of 300 nm in both x- and y-directions, low reflectance and transmittance were observed in the UV–VIS range, indicating efficient coupling of normal incident light into waveguiding modes. As evidence, we measured the spectrum of the waveguide from the edge, and the bandwidth of the spectrum was as narrow as ∼74 nm. The bandwidth of the waveguide can be further improved by increasing the MDM stack number. In addition, the bandwidth can also be widened by increasing the pitch of the structure. The physical mechanism underlying the phenomena was analyzed and experimentally confirmed. Such effect could be useful in many applications, such as DFB lasers, solar cells, waveguides, and light emitting devices.     

Synaptic behaviors of a single metal–oxide–metal resistive device

The mammalian brain is far superior to today’s electronic circuits in intelligence and efficiency. Its functions are realized by the network of neurons connected via synapses. Much effort has been extended in finding satisfactory electronic neural networks that act like brains, i.e., especially the electronic version of synapse that is capable of the weight control and is independent of the external data storage. We demonstrate experimentally that a single metal–oxide–metal structure successfully stores the biological synaptic weight variations (synaptic plasticity) without any external storage node or circuit. Our device also demonstrates the reliability of plasticity experimentally with the model considering the time dependence of spikes. All these properties are embodied by the change of resistance level corresponding to the history of injected voltage-pulse signals. Moreover, we prove the capability of second-order learning of the multi-resistive device by applying it to the circuit composed of transistors. We anticipate our demonstration will invigorate the study of electronic neural networks using non-volatile multi-resistive device, which is simpler and superior compared to other storage devices.     

Electro-optic metal–insulator–semiconductor–insulator–metal Mach-Zehnder plasmonic modulator

The performance of a CMOS-compatible electro-optic Mach-Zehnder plasmonic modulator is investigated using electromagnetic and carrier transport simulations. Each arm of the Mach-Zehnder device comprises a metal–insulator–semiconductor–insulator–metal (MISIM) structure on a buried oxide substrate. Quantum mechanical effects at the oxide/semiconductor interfaces were considered in the calculation of electron density profiles across the structure, in order to determine the refractive index distribution and its dependence on applied bias. This information was used in finite element simulations of the electromagnetic modes within the MISIM structure in order to determine the Mach-Zehnder arm lengths required to achieve destructive interference and the corresponding propagation loss incurred by the device. Both inversion and accumulation mode devices were investigated, and the layer thicknesses and height were adjusted to optimise the device performance. A device loss of <8 dB is predicted for a MISIM structure with a 25 nm thick silicon layer, for which the device length is <3 μm, and <5 dB loss is predicted for the limiting case of a 5 nm thick silicon layer in a 1.2 μm long device: in both cases, the maximum operating voltage is 7.5 V.     

The effect of the metal cylinder in the slot on the transmission properties of the metal–insulator–metal waveguide

The effects of the size, the position and the shape of the metal cylinder in the slot waveguide on the transmittance properties at the communication wavelength of 1.55 μm are investigated using the finite difference time domain method. Since the surface plasmon polartions excites the local surface plasmon resonance of the metal cylinder, the attenuation in the metal–insulator–metal waveguide is enhanced. Those results provide us with the theoretical foundation for the prediction of the effect of the imperfection in the preparation process on the transmittance properties of the metal–insulator–metal waveguides.     

A surface-plasmon-polariton wavelength splitter based on a metal–insulator–metal waveguide

A surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) wavelength splitter based on a metal–insulator–metal waveguide with multiple teeth is proposed. Using the transfer-matrix method, a plasmonic band gap is identified in the multiple-toothed structure, and the splitting wavelength of the SPP splitter can be easily adapted by adjusting the widths of the teeth and the gaps. The proposed wavelength splitter is further verified through finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, in which SPPs with incident wavelengths of 756 nm and 892 nm are successfully split and guided in opposite directions in the waveguide, with extinction ratios of 30 dB and 29 dB, respectively.     

Multiple Fano resonances in metal–insulator–metal waveguide with umbrella resonator coupled with metal baffle for refractive index sensing

A single baffle metal–insulator–metal(MIM) waveguide coupled with a semi-circular cavity and a cross-shaped cavity is proposed based on the multiple Fano resonance characteristics of surface plasmon polaritons(SPPs) subwavelength structure. The isolated state formed by two resonators interferes with the wider continuous state mode formed by the metal baffle, forming Fano resonance that can independently be tuned into five different modes. The formation mechanism of Fano resonance is analyzed based on the multimode interference coupled mode theory(MICMT). The finite element method(FEM) and MICMT are used to simulate the transmission spectra of this structure and analyze the influence of structural parameters on the refractive index sensing characteristics. And the transmission responses calculated by the FEM simulation are consistent with the MICMT theoretical results very well. The results show that the figure of merit(FOM)can reach 193 and the ultra-high sensitivity is 1600 nm/RIU after the structure parameters have been optimized, and can provide theoretical basis for designing the high sensitive refractive index sensors based on SPPs waveguide for high-density photonic integration with excellent performance in the near future.     

Surface modes in metal–insulator composites with strong interaction of metal particles

We theoretically examine plasmonic resonance excited between two close metallic grains embedded into a dielectric matrix. The grains sizes are assumed to be much less than the wavelength of the electromagnetic wave in the dielectric medium and the grain’s separation is assumed to be much smaller than the grains sizes. A qualitative scheme is developed that enables one to estimate frequency of the plasmonic resonance and value of the field enhancement inside the gap. Our general arguments are confirmed by rigorous analytic solution of the problem for simplest geometry—two identical spherical grains.     

Solid-state crystal-to-amorphous transition in metal‐metal multilayers and its thermodynamic and atomistic modelling

In this review article, first a brief summary is presented concerning the formation of amorphous alloys (or metallic glasses) in binary metal systems by solid-state reaction of metallic multilayers. Secondly, under the framework of Miedema's model, thermodynamic modelling of crystal-to-amorphous transition is developed with special consideration of the excess interfacial free energy in metallic multilayers. Thirdly, the results of molecular dynamics simulations in some representative systems are presented, revealing the detailed kinetics of the crystal-to-amorphous transition on the atomic scale, such as the temperature/time dependence of interfacial reactions, the asymmetric growth of amorphous interlayers, and the nucleation and/or presence of growth barriers resulting from the interfacial texture. Fourthly, the critical solid solubilities of some representative systems are directly determined from the inter-atomic potentials through molecular dynamics simulations and then correlated with the metallic-glass-forming ability of the systems as well as their asymmetric growth during solid-state amorphization observed in experiments and/or simulations.     

Numerical analysis of surface plasmon nanocavities formed inthickness-modulated metal－insulator－metal waveguides

The enhancement characteristics of the local field in the surface plasmon nanocavities are investigated numerically. The cavity is constructed by placing a defect structure in the thickness-modulated metal--insulator--metal waveguide Bragg gratings. The characteristic impedance based transfer matrix method is used to calculate the transmission spectra and the resonant wavelength of the cavities with various geometric parameters. The finite-difference time-domain method is used to obtain the field pattern of the resonant mode and validate the results of the transfer matrix method. The calculation and simulation results reveal the existence of resonant wavelength shift and intensity variation with structural parameters, such as the modulation period of the gratings, the length and the width of the defect structure. Both numerical analysis and theoretical interpretation on these phenomena are given in details.     

New design of triplexer based on metal–insulator–metal plasmonic ring resonators

In this work, we propose a new design of all-optical triplexer based on of metal–insulator–metal（MIM） plasmonic waveguide structures and ring resonators. By adjusting the radii of ring resonators and the gap distance, certain wavelengths can be filtered out and the crosstalk of each channel can also be reduced. The numerical results show that the proposed MIM plasmonic waveguide structure can really function as an optical triplexer with respect to the three wavelengths, that is, 1310, 1490, and 1550 nm, respectively. It can be widely used as the fiber access network element for multiplexer–demultiplexer wavelength selective in fiber-to-the-home communication systems with transmission efficiency higher than 90%. It can also be a potential key component in the applications of the biosensing systems.     

Fullerene-based electrode interlayers for bandgap tunable organometal perovskite metal–semiconductor–metal photodetectors

Perovskite photoconductor-type photodetector with metal–semiconductor–metal(MSM) structure is a basic device for photodetection applications. However, the role of electrode interlayer in MSM-type perovskite devices is less investigated compared to that of the pin diode structure. Here, a systematic investigation on the influence of phenyl-C_(61)-butyric acid methyl ester(PCBM) and indene-C_(60) bisadduct(ICBA) interfacial layers for MSM perovskite photodetectors is reported.It is found that the fullerene-based interlayer significantly enhances the photocurrent of the MSM photodetectors. On one hand, the PCBM interlayer is more suitable for CH_3 NH_3 PbI_3 photodetector, with the responsivity two times higher than that of the device with ICBA interlayer. The ICBA layer, on the other hand, becomes more effective when the band gap of perovskite is enlarged with bromine composition, denoted as CH_3 NH_3 Pb(I_(1-x)Br_x)_3(0 ≤ x ≤1). It is further found that the specific detectivity of photodetectors with ICBA interlayer becomes even higher than those with PCBM when the bromine compositional percentage reaches 0.6(x 0.6).     

Photon-assisted tunneling versus tunneling of excited electrons in metal–insulator–metal junctions

Photocurrent measurements in Ag–Al₂O₃–Al metal–insulator–metal junctions under illumination with ultra-short laser pulses reveal that tunneling and internal photoemission of excited electrons are the dominating transport mechanisms. Photon-assisted tunneling is observed under rare conditions that depend critically on the preparation of the interface. The comparison of time-resolved two-pulse correlation measurements with model calculations shows that the photon-induced transport of excited electrons is well described using a one-dimensional many-particle model for two coupled metallic leads, whereas a single-particle model for nonresonant excitation in a rectangular double-minimum potential reveals the signature of photon-assisted tunneling. PACS 73.40.-c; 72.10.-d; 73.40.Gk; 73.50.Pz     

Flexible metal–insulator–metal (MIM) devices for plastic film AM-LCD

We developed new flexible metal–insulator–metal (MIM) devices subject to plastic film substrate. The structure of the MIM device is that a Ta₂O₅ insulator is covered with two flexible Al electrodes on both sides. The flexible structure of the MIM device was successfully fabricated applying our own etch-free process.