Orbital-Angular-Momentum-Controlled Hybrid Nanowire Circuit.

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Nanotechnology
• Quantum Information Science

Background:

• Plasmonic nanostructures offer compact multiplexing of light's orbital angular momentum (OAM) but suffer from near-field dissipation, limiting on-chip applications.
• Semiconductor nanowires provide efficient optical mode confinement but have primarily utilized polarization for selective excitation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate selective excitation of semiconductor nanowires using OAM beams.
• To develop an OAM-controlled hybrid nanowire circuit for optical logic operations and information processing.
• To enable on-chip photoluminescence readout of OAM-encrypted data.

Main Methods:

• Coupling OAM-distinct plasmonic fields into single-crystalline cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanowire waveguides.
• Utilizing nanowire waveguides for long-distance transportation of OAM-encoded light.
• Implementing hybrid nanowire circuits for optical logic gates (AND, OR) and information readout.

Main Results:

• Achieved selective excitation of CdS nanowires using incident OAM beams.
• Demonstrated long-distance OAM transmission within nanowire waveguides.
• Successfully built and operated an OAM-controlled hybrid nanowire circuit for optical logic operations.
• Enabled on-chip photoluminescence readout of OAM-encrypted information.

Conclusions:

• This work establishes a novel method for controlling light's OAM using semiconductor nanowires.
• The developed hybrid nanowire circuit facilitates OAM-controlled optical switches, logic gates, and modulators.
• Opens new possibilities for ultracompact photonic circuits for advanced information processing using OAM photonics.