Design of an IMI optical 2 × 4 decoder circuit based on square disk resonators.

Area of Science:

• Plasmonics
• Nanophotonics
• Optical Computing

Background:

• Plasmonic devices offer miniaturization potential for optical circuits.
• Designing efficient and high-performance plasmonic components remains a key challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and analyze a 2x4 plasmonic decoder using insulator-metal-insulator waveguides.
• To evaluate the performance of the proposed decoder in terms of key optical parameters.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the finite element method (FEM) with COMSOL 5.5 software for design and simulation.
• Fabricated the decoder using gold as a conducting material and Teflon as a dielectric material.
• Investigated insulator-metal-insulator (IMI) waveguides with specific dimensions (1090 nm x 400 nm).

Main Results:

• Achieved a transmission threshold (T) of 10% at an operating wavelength of 1550 nm.
• Demonstrated a maximum modulation depth (MD) of 99.96%.
• Obtained a high contrast ratio (CR) of 12.33 decibels.

Conclusions:

• The designed plasmonic decoder exhibits excellent performance characteristics.
• The achieved modulation depth and contrast ratio surpass those of previous works.
• The proposed design shows promise for advanced optical signal processing applications.