Design of a vertically coupled liquid-crystal long-range plasmonic optical switch

An optical switch based on liquid-crystal (LC) tunable long-range metal stripe waveguides is proposed and theoretically investigated. A nematic liquid crystal layer placed between a vertical configuration consisting of two gold stripes is shown to allow for the extensive electro-optic tuning of the coupler's waveguiding characteristics. Rigorous liquid-crystal switching studies are coupled with the investigation of the optical properties of the proposed plasmonic structure, taking into account different excitation conditions and the impact of LC-scattering losses. A directional coupler optical switch is demonstrated, which combines low power consumption, low cross-talk, short coupling lengths, along with sufficiently reduced insertion losses. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4794939]