Plasmonic Resonant Optical Nanoswitch

TL;DR

This paper investigates a plasmonic nanosphere with asymmetric hemispheres, demonstrating how its optical response can be dramatically controlled by polarization, enabling applications as an optical switch and nanocircuit element.

Contribution

It introduces a novel plasmonic nanosphere design with polarization-dependent optical responses, enabling tunable optical switching and nanocircuit functionalities.

Findings

Optical response varies from electric to magnetic behavior with polarization rotation.

Internal resonance causes strong polarization-dependent effects.

Potential applications in optical switching and nanocircuit design.

Abstract

We examine here the anomalous optical response of a nanosphere composed of two conjoined hemispheres of different materials, one of them being plasmonic. At the internal resonance, we show how the light interaction becomes dramatically dependent on the polarization of the local electric field exciting the particle. In particular, its response may be varied from the one of an ideal perfect electric to a perfect magnetic homogeneous sphere through all the possible intermediate stages, by a simple 90 deg rotation. Applications as optical switch and as a novel nanocircuit element are envisioned.