Chip-integrated all-optical diode based on nonlinear plasmonic nanocavities covered with multicomponent nanocomposite

Ultracompact chip-integrated all-optical diode is realized experimentally in a plasmonic microstructure, consisting of a plasmonic waveguide side-coupled two asymmetric plasmonic composite nanocavities covered with a multicomponent nanocomposite layer, formed directly in a plasmonic circuit. Extremely large optical nonlinearity enhancement is obtained for the multicomponent nanocomposite cover layer, originating from resonant excitation, slow-light effect, and field enhancement effect. Nonreciprocal transmission was achieved based on the difference in the shift magnitude of the transparency window centers of two asymmetric plasmonic nanocavities induced by the signal light, itself, for the forward and backward propagation cases. An ultralow threshold incident light power of 145 μW (corresponding to a threshold intensity of 570 kW/cm2) is realized, which is reduced by seven orders of magnitude compared with previous reports. An ultrasmall feature size of 2 μm and a transmission contrast ratio of 15 dB are obtained simultaneously.