Controlling light with light using coherent meta-devices: all-optical transistor, summator and invertor

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that coherent meta-devices can perform all-optical signal processing functions like amplification, summation, and inversion at THz bandwidths without nonlinear materials, enabling advanced optical data processing.

Contribution

It introduces a four-port coherent plasmonic metamaterial device capable of performing key optical functions without relying on nonlinearities, advancing all-optical information processing.

Findings

Realizes small-signal amplification, summation, and inversion using coherent interactions.

Operates at THz bandwidth with no signal distortion.

Controls energy redistribution at the single photon level.

Abstract

Although vast amounts of information are conveyed by photons in optical fibers, the majority of data processing is performed electronically, creating the infamous 'information bottleneck' and consuming energy at an increasingly unsustainable rate. The potential for photonic devices to directly manipulate light remains unfulfilled due largely to a lack of materials with strong, fast optical nonlinearities. In this paper, we show that small-signal amplifier, summator and invertor functions for optical signals may be realized using a four-port device that exploits the coherent interaction of beams on a planar plasmonic metamaterial, assuming no intrinsic nonlinearity. The redistribution of energy among ports can be coherently controlled at the single photon level, with THz bandwidth and without introducing signal distortion, thereby presenting powerful opportunities for novel optical data processing architectures, complexity oracles and the locally coherent networks that are becoming part of the mainstream telecommunications agenda.