All-optical nonlinear plasmonic ring resonator switches

In this paper, all-optical nonlinear plasmonic ring resonator (PRR) switches containing 90o sharp and smooth bends have been proposed and numerically analyzed by the finite-difference time-domain method. Kerr nonlinear self-phase modulation (SPM) and cross-phase modulation (XPM) effects on the switching performance of the device have been studied. By applying a high-power lightwave, the signal can switch from one port to the other port due to the ON/OFF resonant states of the ring. We have shown that by utilizing the XPM effect, the output power ratio is improved by a factor of 2.5 and the required switching power is 31% of that of the case with only the SPM effect. Moreover, by utilizing sharp bend square-shaped ring resonators, the switching power is 10.4% lower than that of the smooth ones. The nonlinear PRR switches are suitable for application in photonic-integrated circuits as all-optical switches because of their nanoscale size and low required switching power.