Optically Pumped Hybrid Plasmonic-Photonic Waveguide Modulator Using the VO2 Metal-Insulator Phase Transition

The need for ever faster and more efficient computation and communication devices has spurred interest in the field of all-optical modulators. Here a small-size hybrid plasmonic-photonic all-optical waveguide modulator utilizing a subwavelength Au/VO
₂
nanostructure is proposed as a high-modulation optically actuatable modulator. Using finite-difference-time-domain simulations, a nanoscale (320 nm × 300 nm cross-section) optimized modulator is designed. The modulator design has an extinction ratio as high as 26.85 dB/μm, and a length of only 550 nm.