Optical 'Shorting Wires'

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel class of nanowaveguides that act as 'shorting wires' in optical nanocircuits, enabling the connection of circuit elements at the nanoscale with minimal potential drop.

Contribution

It proposes a new type of nanowaveguide with specific permittivity properties to serve as optical 'shorting wires' in nanocircuit design.

Findings

Nanowaveguides can mimic electrical wires in optical nanocircuits.

Special permittivity profiles enable effective optical connections.

Potential for improved optical nanocircuit integration.

Abstract

Connecting lumped circuit elements in a conventional circuit is usually accomplished by conducting wires that act as conduits for the conduction currents with negligible potential drops. More challenging, however, is to extend these concepts to optical nanocircuit elements. Here, following our recent development of optical lumped circuit elements, we show how a special class of nanowaveguides formed by a thin core with relatively large (positive or negative) permittivity surrounded by a thin concentric shell with low permittivity may provide the required analogy to 'wires' for optical nano-circuits.