Vanadium dioxide based plasmonic switching in V shape nanostructures

This paper demonstrates plasmonic switches based on periodic V shape gold nanostructure arrays designed such that a 100 nm thick layer of vanadium dioxide is situated between the nanostructures and the underlying SiO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> substrate coated with gold. The periodic arrangement of V Shape Nanopillars (VSN) with small separation induces coupled interactions among the plasmonic modes of VSN. When exposed to high temperature, E-field, or radiation, vanadium dioxide film changes from its insulating phase into its metal phase, which changes the reflectance spectra from the structure, leading to switching. Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) numerical modelling is used to show that the realization of an Extinction Ratio (ER) of around 14 dB can be simultaneously realized at more than one wavelength using these VSN switches. Further, it is also illustrated that the operating wavelength can be varied by modifying the topological parameters of the switch – such as the length (L), the angle (ɵ), and the VO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> layer thickness (t). These switches have immense usage in communication applications.