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PLasmoniCs Promises Faster CommuniCation

Get ready to witness even faster computing and telecom. Plasmonicsa new technologypromises to bring this revolution by putting together the best of electronics and photonics
with surface charge oscillations. Their frequency is almost equal to that of light; optical frequencies are about 105 times greater than the frequency of todays electronic microprocessors. So light can be used to excite them on the surface of a material in a localised regime. The energy required to receive and send a surface plasmon pulse can be less than for electric charging of a metallic wire. This could allow plasmons to travel along nanoscale wires (called interconnects) carrying information from one part of a microprocessor to another with a high bitrate. Plasmonic interconnects would be a great boon for chip designers, who have been able to develop ever smaller and faster transistors but have had a harder time building minute electronic circuits that can move data quickly across the chip. Surface plasmons can be excited on a flat nano-film, nanostrip or other shaped nanoparticles such as nanosphere, nanorod, nanocube and nanostar. When nanoparticles are used to excite surface plasmons by light, these are known as localised surface plasmons. Silver and gold are of particular interest due to their high field enhancement and resonance wavelength lying in the visible spectral regime. The speed of these surface plasmons is almost equal to that of light with wavelength of the order of tens of nanometres. tories, though, photonics has started replacing electronics where a high data transfer rate is required. Electronics deals with the flow of charge (electrons). When the frequency of an electronic pulse increases, the electronic device becomes hot and wires become very loose. Hence by the principle of the higher the frequency, the higher the data transfer rate, a huge amount of data cannot be transferred. On the other hand, when the size of an electronic wire reduces, its resistance (inversely proportional to the cross-sectional area of the wire) increases but the capacitance remains almost the same. This leads to time delay effects. In photonics, optical fibres (cylindrical dielectric/non-conducting waveguides) are used. These transmit light along their axis by the process of total internal reflection. The fibre consists of a core surrounded by a cladding layer, both of which are made of dielectric materials. To confine the optical signal in the core, the refractive index of the core must be greater than of the cladding. The lateral confinement size of the optical cable is approximately half the wavelength of the light used. Hence the size of the optical cable is of the order of hundreds of nanometreslarger than todays electronic devices.

JaGmeet sinGh and dr s.s. Verma

urrently, communication systems are based on either electronics or photonics. However, with the quest for transporting huge amounts of data at a high speed along with miniaturisation, both these technologies are facing limitations. Due to their mismatched capacities and sizes, it is very difficult to cobble them to get a high bitrate with miniaturisation. So researchers are pioneering a new technology called plasmonics. Due to its frequency being approximately equal to that of light and ability to interface with similar-size electronic components, plasmonics can act as a bridge between photonics and electronics for communication.

What is plasmonics?
The term plasmonics is derived from plasmonsquanta associated with collective excitation of free electrons in metals. Surface plasmons are associated
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Limitations of present modes

Presently, electronics plays an important role in communication. In labora-

Communication with plasmonics

Plasmonic structures can exert huge control over electromagnetic waves
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at the nanoscale. As a result, energy carried by plasmons allows for light localisation in ultra-small volumes far beyond the diffraction limit of light. To generate surface plasmons, it is necessary to excite the metal-dielectric interface in which the dielectric constant of the metal is a function of frequency and negative. At the nanoscale, the electromagnetic (EM) field of the EM wave displays the electron cloud due to its well coupling, which is not possible in the case of bulk matter. Hence plasmonics is frequently associated with nanotechnology. Investigators have found that by creatively designing the metaldielectric interface, they can generate surface plasmons with the same frequency as the electromagnetic wave but with much smaller wavelength. This phenomenon could allow plasmons to travel along nanoscale wires called interconnects in order to carry information from one part of the microprocessor to another.

Fig. 1: Operating speed of data transporting and processing systems

methods
Plasmonic waveguides are attracting much attention owing to their ability to operate in various parts of the spectrumranging from visible to far-infrared region. A plasmon could travel as far as several micrometres in the slot waveguide (dielectric core with metallic cladding)far enough to convey a signal from one part of a chip to another. The plasmon slot waveguide squeezes the optical signal, shrinking its wavelength. Metallic nanowires can provide lateral confinement of the mode below the diffraction limit. Nanowires have larger attenuation than planer films but light transport over a distance of several microns has been demonstrated. A chain of differently-shaped nanoparticles (such as spheres and rods) can be used to transport EM waves from one nanoparticle to another via the near-field electrodynamic interaction between them. If the second particle is situated in the near field of the
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ergy could be transported below the diffraction limit with high efficiency and group velocity greater than 0.1c along a wire of its characteristic length 0.1. In year 2002, Maier et al experimentally observed the most efficient frequency for transport to be 3.191015 rad/sec with a corresponding group velocity of 4.0x106 m/s for longitudinal Fig. 2: Operating regimesapplicable size and speed mode of plasmon waveguide scalefor plasmonic and other devices having an inter-particle distance other and so on along the chain, EM of 75 nm. The achieved bandwidth was energy can be propagated within the calculated to be 1.41014 rad/sec. lateral size confinement less than the Dionne et al in year 2006 constructdiffraction limit. In a chain of closelyed slot waveguides. Slot waveguides spaced nanostructures, the propagacan support both transverse electric tion distance depends upon the shape and transverse magnetic photonic and nature of materials, separation polarisation. The loss in slot wavebetween them as well as the dielectric guide can be minimised by using a constant of the host medium. low-refractive-index material; for example, a 100nm thick Ag/SiO2/Ag slab Latest developments waveguide sustains signal propagation up to 35 m at wavelength of 840 nm. The possibility to confine light to In 2007, Feng et al observed that field the nanoscale and the ability to tune localisation could be improved by inthe dispersion relation of light have troducing the partial dielectric filling evoked large interest and led to rapid of the metal slot waveguide, which growth of plasmonic research. The also reduces propagation losses. The parallel development of nanoscale channel in metal surface waveguides fabrication techniques like electron supports surface plasmons at telecombeam lithography and focused-ionmunication wavelength with very low beam milling has opened up new loss (having propagation length of ways to structure metals surfaces 100 m) and well-confined guiding. and control surface plasmon polariIn this experiment, surface plasmons ton propagation and dispersion at the are guided along a 0.6m wide and nanoscale. 1m deep triangular groove in gold In 2000, Mark L. Brongersma et material. al (and others) proposed that EM ene l e c t ro n i c s f o r yo u M a r c h 2 0 1 1 4 9

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Thin metallic strips can support long-range surface plasmonsa particular type of surface plasmon mode characterised by electromagnetic fields mostly contained in the region outside of the metal, i.e., in dielectric medium. Jung et al in 2007 experimentally confirmed that long-range surface plasmons could transfer data signal as well as the carrier light. In a demonstration, a 10Gbps signal was transmitted over a thin metallic strip (14nm thick, 2.5m wide and 4cm long gold strip). Furthermore, to reduce the propaOne primary goal of this field is to develop new optical components and systems that are of the same size as todays smallest integrated circuits and that could ultimately be integrated with electronics on the same chip. The next step will be to integrate the components with an electronic chip to demonstrate plasmonic data generation, transport and detection. Plasmon waves on metals behave much like light waves in glass. That means engineers can use techniques like multiplexing or sending multiple tion? Surface plasmon polaritons are usually excited using far-field optical techniques, which have a higher resolution than plasmonic phenomena under investigation. However, for true nanoscale plasmonic studies, a surfaceplasmon-polariton point source with nanoscale dimensions is required. What are the fundamental processes that determine the losses of surface plasmon polaritons? is another important question. Practically, plasmon experiments are performed on poly-crystalline surfaces, and the limits to the losses due to surface roughness, grain boundaries, etc are not known. Surface plasmons propagate along the chain of nanoparticles, but the losses are high. On the other hand, propagation losses are low in the case of nanowires, which leaves open the possibility of surface-plasmon optical devices. The dream of making all-plasmonic devices requires further research. In order to realise advanced active circuits, there is a need for active modulator and switching components operating at ultra-high bandwidth and lowpower utilisation. To manipulate surface plasmon polaritons on a surface, reflectors are needed. So far, macroscopic Bragg reflectors structured into the surface have been used. For true nanoscale integration, nanoscale surface plasmon polariton mirrors are required. Once these are realised, nanoscale cavities to confine surface plasmon polaritons can also be designed. The limits to the mode volume and quality factor of plasmonic cavities are not yet known. Finally, the use of a particle beam rather than a light beam to excite surface plasmon polaritons raises questions and novel opportunities regarding the selectivity with which surface plasmon modes with different symmetry can be excited.
Dr Verma is an associate professor in Department of Physics, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering & Technology, Longowal, Distt Sangrur (Punjab). Mr Singh too is from the same department
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the dream of making all-plasmonic devices requires further research. in order to realise advanced active circuits, there is a need for active modulator and switching components operating at ultra-high bandwidth and low-power utilisation
gation loss, Jin Tae Kim et al fabricated a low-loss, long-range surface plasmon polariton waveguide in an ultravioletcurable acrylate polymer having low refractive index and absorption loss. A 14nm thick and 3m wide metallic strip cladded in acrylate polymer material shows a loss of 1.72 dB/cm. Rashid Zia et al obtained the numerical solution by using the full-vectorial magnetic field finite-difference method for 55nm thick and 3.5nm wide strip on glass at a wavelength of 800 nm and noted that surface plasmons are supported on both sides of the strip and can propagate independently. Alexandra et al in year 2008 suggested that triangular metal wedge could guide surface plasmons at telecommunication wavelength. It was experimentally observed that 1.431.52m wavelength can propagate over a distance of about 120 m with confined-mode width of 1.3 m along a 6m high and 70.5 angled triangular gold wedge. waves. Plasmon sources, detectors and wires as well as splitters and even plasmonsters can be developed. Applications mainly depend on controlling the losses and the cost of nanofabrication techniques. Enhanced and directed emission of semiconductor luminescence (quantum dots) may well find commercial application in plasmonassisted lighting in the near future. Finally, plasmonic nanocircuits combine a high bandwidth with a high level of compaction and make plasmonic components promising for all-optical circuits. Plasmonic wires will act as high-bandwidth freeways across the busiest areas of the chip. Plasmons can ferry data along computer chips. Plasmonic switches required for this are under development. Rotaxanes molecule is being used for the purpose. Change in the shape of the molecule is the principle of this molecular switch.

Future directions
In the field of plasmonics, studying the way light interacts with metallic nanostructures will make it easier to design new optical material devices.
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Challenges remaining
Despite many advances in the field of plasmonics, several important open questions and problems remain. For example, how can plasmons be efficiently excited with nanoscale resolu-