UBC Faculty Research and Publications

An investigation of semiconductor nanoparticles for application to all-optical switching Born, Brandon; Geoffroy-Gagnon, Simon; Holzman, Jonathan F.

Abstract

A practical all-optical switch is necessary to alleviate electronic bottlenecks in fibre optic networks. Thus, a new all optical switch is introduced here—exhibiting femtojoule switching energies and femtosecond switching times. The all optical switches use 40 μm dielectric spheres to direct high-intensity photonic nanojets into peripheral coatings of semiconductor nanoparticles. Semiconductor nanoparticle coatings of Si, CdTe, InP, and CuO are studied and found to yield switching energies of approximately 1 pJ, 500 fJ, 400 fJ, and 300 fJ with switching times of 2 ps, 2.3 ps, 900 fs, and 350 fs, respectively.

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International