All-Optical Modulation with a Surface Plasmon Mach-Zehnder Interferometer

State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics and Department of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871

Received Date: September 04, 2008

Published Date: April 30, 2009

Abstract

We use two parallel nano-slits in a silver film to form a surface plasmon Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), based on the interference of two surface plasmon waves propagating along the two surfaces of the silver film. Coating the silver film with a photoinduced birefringence polymer film, we achieve optical modulation of the MZI output by changing the refractive index of the polymer film with a pump beam. An on/off ratio of 2.7 is obtained for a probe wavelength of 865nm.

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