Advanced Functional Materials, Vol.21, No.10, 1803-1809, 2011
Low-Power and High-Contrast Nanoscale All-Optical Diodes Via Nanocomposite Photonic Crystal Microcavities
A novel nanoscale integrated all-optical diode is reported, realized by combining the strong plasmonic responses of gold nanoparticles with the all-optical tunable properties of polymeric photonic crystal microcavities. Non-reciprocal transmission properties are achieved based on the effect of surface-plasmon resonance enhancing the optical non-linearity and dynamic coupling of asymmetrical microcavity modes. An ultralow-threshold photon intensity of 2.1 MW cm(-2) and an ultrahigh transmission contrast over 10(4) are realized simultaneously. Compared with previously reported all-optical diodes, the operating power is reduced by five orders of magnitude, while the transmission contrast is enlarged by three orders of magnitude.