Propagation Characteristics of Surface Plasmon Polaritons Near Anisotropic 2D Materials Sandwiched by Chiral Media

A novel surface plasmonic waveguide structure composed of chiral medium and 2D material is proposed. The universal direction-dependent dispersion relation is obtained, which covers the combinations between 2D materials with in-plane isotropy or anisotropy and the surroundings with or without chirality. The tunability of the behavior of surface plasmon polaritons with the chirality of environment and the doping level are investigated. The averaging effect of chirality in both sides of 2D material is unveiled. Besides, the transverse spin of SPPs in the Chiral-2D material structure is explored and the asymmetric distribution of the transverse spin depends mainly on the contribution from the magnetic spin instead of the electric spin. These features are advantageous for the manufacture of novel photonic devices and the development of sensors techniques for the chiral environment.     

Transverse optical patterns for ultra‐low‐light‐level all‐optical switching

We review recent theoretical and experimental efforts toward developing an all‐optical switch based on transverse optical patterns. Transverse optical patterns are formed when counterpropagating laser beams interact with a nonlinear medium. A perturbation, in the form of a weak switch beam injected into the nonlinear medium, controls the orientation of the generated patterns. Each state of the pattern orientation is associated with a state of the switch. That is, information is stored in the orientation state. A realization of this switch using a warm rubidium vapor shows that it can be actuated by as few as 600 ± 40 photons with a response time of 5 µs. Models of nonlinear optical interactions in semiconductor quantum wells and microresonators suggest these systems are also suitable for use as fast all‐optical switches using this same conceptual design, albeit at higher switching powers.