I-Corps: Translation potential of an on-chip meta-plasmonic platform for efficient and ultracompact photonic devices

This I-Corps project is based on the development of an energy efficient, chip-scale technology that uses light to control light for low-power optical modulators, switches, and quantum-photonic components. Computing and communication systems increasingly move information as light, but every optical switch, modulator, and interconnect still draws substantial power and occupies more space on a chip than an electronic transistor. Data centers account for a growing share of global electricity demand, and the optical layer that moves data between processors is one of the fastest rising contributors to that load. This technology patterns a metal film with an array of nanoscale grooves that channel optical energy along a chip in a tightly confined beam that does not spread as it travels. Potential commercial applications include low-power optical interconnects, switching elements for optical and brain-inspired computing, hardware for secure communication, and compact sensing and imaging devices. This may allow an optical signal to be controlled at roughly one hundred times lower power than conventional focused light methods. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of a nanoplasmonic platform based on metasurface plasmon polaritons for low-power optical modulators, switches, and quantum-photonic components. This technology is a one-dimensional silver nano-groove array supporting surface optical modes that propagate along a chip with negligible diffraction within a designed wavelength window. This confines the optical energy to deep sub-wavelength volumes while carrying it over device-scale distances. Previous research established the platform through a nonlocal pump-probe measurement in which these modes imprinted a spatially modulated AC Stark shift on excitons in a monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenide several microns from the illumination spot. The result was formation of a sub-wavelength optical lattice and production of a coherent optical nonlinearity at approximately ninety times lower pump power than equivalent free-space illumination. The same geometry also sorts light by wavelength and polarization on-chip and reduces parasitic pump heating. This technology may allow operation without cryogenic cooling if the field confinement can be carried into strong plasmon–exciton coupling and a cascadable all-optical switching element. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.