Coherent control of plasmon propagation in a nanocircuit

Abstract

The miniaturization of optical devices is a prerequisite for broadband data-processing technology to compete with cutting-edge nanoelectronic circuits. For these future nano-optical circuits, controlling the spatial and temporal evolution of surface plasmons, i.e., propagating optical near fields at metal-insulator interfaces, is a key feature. Here, we design, optimize, and fabricate a nanoscale directional coupler with one input and two output ports, a device that is an essential element of nano-optical circuits. The directional coupler is based on a two-wire transmission line supporting two plasmonic eigenmodes that can be selectively excited. By manipulating the input polarization of ultrashort pulses and pulse pairs and by characterizing the light emitted from both output ports, we demonstrate open-loop ultrafast spatial and spatiotemporal coherent control of plasmon propagation. Because of the intuitive and optimized design, which exploits a controlled near-field interference mechanism, varying the linear input polarization is enough to switch between both output ports of the nanoscale directional coupler. Since we exploit the interference of a finite spectrum of eigenmodes, our experiments represent a very intuitive classical analogue to quantum control in molecules.