Plasmonic optoelectronics on silicon

Abstract

Metallic nanostructures such as gratings or antennas operate as a coupling structure that couples incident light to surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) propagating thereon or on an underlying thin metal film. When deposited on a semiconductor such as a Si substrate the nanostructures become useful as infrared intensity modulators or photodetectors, exploiting SPP-enhanced carrier refraction in Si, or SPP-enhanced internal photoemission, respectively. Various materials are considered, including materials that are standard for electronics.