On-chip visible light communication-band metasurface modulators with niobium plasmonic nano-antenna arrays

TL;DR

This paper presents on-chip visible light communication modulators using niobium plasmonic nano-antenna arrays that achieve high modulation depth and extinction, suitable for quantum and fiber-optic applications.

Contribution

Introduction of niobium-based plasmonic nano-antenna arrays for integrated visible light modulators with high sensitivity and modulation depth at room temperature.

Findings

Modulation depth of 60% at 716 nm

Maximum extinction of 95% at 650 nm

Potential for quantum and fiber-optic communication integration

Abstract

We introduce chip-integrated visible light communication-band modulators based on niobium (Nb) metallic plasmonic nano-antenna arrays. Our plasmonic nano-devices provide strong sensitivity to the polarization of the incident visible light and the geometrical parameters of their subwavelength nanoscale building blocks. Moreover, they offer optical modulation properties with modulation depth MD = 60% at resonant wavelength lambda= 716 nm, at room temperature. By engineering the photo response of the Nb nano-device arrays, we observe a maximum extinction A(lambda)= 1- R(lambda}) = 95 % at resonant wavelength {\lambda}= 650 nm. Our results suggest that the integrated Nb nano-antenna array devices can be considered as suitable platforms for the realisation of chip-scale optoelectronic devices interfacing cryogenics quantum circuits, and fibre-based communication systems, for applications in quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum processing.