All optical switch based on Fano resonance in metal nanocomposite photonic crystals

We investigate the potential of plasmonic resonance in metal nanocomposite materials for the design of photonic crystal all optical switches by numerical methods. We study the absorption effect of the plasmonic resonance on the Fano resonances of one dimensional photonic crystal slabs covered by a metal nanocomposite layer. It is shown that the absorption reduces the contrast of the Fano resonances. However, for adequate metal nanoparticle concentrations it is possible to achieve both sufficiently sharp Fano resonance and strong Kerr nonlinearity, which provides a suitable condition for the design of high contrast and low threshold switches.