Tunable band (pass and stop) filters based on plasmonic structures using Kerr-type nonlinear rectangular nanocavity

We have proposed and numerically investigated two plasmonic structures for bandpass and band-stop filters. The bandpass filter is composed of two metal–insulator–metal (MIM) waveguides coupled to each other by a nonlinear rectangular nanocavity. The band-stop filter consists of an MIM waveguide side coupled to a Kerr-type nonlinear rectangular nanocavity. The optical filtering effect is verified by two-dimensional (2-D) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations. It is demonstrated that based on optical nonlinearity we can easily make the proposed filters tunable by properly adjusting the intensity of incident light without changing the dimensions of the structures. The simulation results revealed that within the transmission spectrum, the selected central wavelength and the bandwidth of the filter can be tuned by the input signal intensity. The proposed structures are suitable to be used as highly dense integrated optical circuits, where limitations on the dimensions of the filter structure are vital.