Nonlinear co-generation of graphene plasmons for optoelectronic logic gates

Surface plasmons in graphene provide a compelling strategy for advanced photonic technologies thanks to their tight confinement, fast response and tunability. Recent advances in the field of all-optical generation of graphene’s plasmons in planar waveguides offer a promising method for high-speed signal processing in nanoscale integrated optoelectronic devices. Here, we use two counter propagating frequency combs with temporally synchronized pulses to demonstrate deterministic all-optical generation and electrical control of multiple plasmon polaritons, excited via difference frequency generation (DFG). Electrical tuning of a hybrid graphene-fiber device offers a precise control over the DFG phase-matching, leading to tunable responses of the graphene’s plasmons at different frequencies and provides a powerful tool for high-speed logic operations. Our results offer new insights for plasmonics on hybrid photonic devices based on layered materials and pave the way to high-speed integrated optoelectronic computing circuits.

Nanosecond-scale all-optical Ti3C2Tx-MXene modulator

Inspired by recent advancements of graphene-based ultrafast photonic devices, as a graphene-like two-dimensional layer-structure material, Ti3C2Tx-MXene has gained much interest in nonlinear optical applications, especially in all-optical intensity modulation. Herein, we successfully fabricated an all-optical modulator based on Ti3C2Tx-Mxene/polyvinyl-alcohol film with nanosecond-scale response time, modulation speed of 100 kHz, and modulation depth of 10%. Furthermore, the variation of fall edges of modulated signal pulse attributing to thermo-optic effect under different pump power was also observed. Considering the ease of fabrication, low cost, ease integration, the proposed novel modulator may open the door for highspeed all-optical communications and signal processing.