Plasmonic switch based on polymer buried indium-tin-oxide utilizing surface plasmon polariton transmission for PICs

This paper presents the design and performance analysis of a 2μm long plasmonic-based switch. Plasmonic-based switches are essential for controlling THz waves through surface plasmon polariton (SPP) propagation within photonic integrated circuits (PICs). The device’s performance is enhanced by embedding the plasmonic switch in a polymer material. Two types of switches, one using indium-tin-oxide (ITO) and the other incorporating graphene-integrated ITO, has been designed and studied to achieve the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) effect. The switch’s On–Off mechanism depends on the ENZ effect of the plasmonic materials, yielding an extinction ratio (ER) of 16.44 dB/μm for the ITO-based switch and 12.55 dB/μm for the graphene-integrated ITO-based switch. Both devices attained a figure-of-merit (FOM) of 822 and 897 for the ITO-based switch and the graphene-integrated ITO-based switch, respectively. Additionally, the modulation speeds (f) for these devices are 11.37 THz and 9.09 THz, for the ITO-based switch and graphene-integrated ITO-based switch, respectively. The compact size, low transmission loss, and high switching ratio of these devices highlight their potential for next-generation photonic systems.