Towards femtosecond on-chip electronics based on plasmonic hot electron nano-emitters

Christoph Karnetzky, Philipp Zimmermann, Christopher Trummer, Carolina Duque Sierra, Martin Wörle, Reinhard Kienberger and Alexander Holleitner ()
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Christoph Karnetzky: Technical University of Munich
Philipp Zimmermann: Technical University of Munich
Christopher Trummer: Technical University of Munich
Carolina Duque Sierra: Technical University of Munich
Martin Wörle: Technical University of Munich
Reinhard Kienberger: Technical University of Munich
Alexander Holleitner: Technical University of Munich

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract To combine the advantages of ultrafast femtosecond nano-optics with an on-chip communication scheme, optical signals with a frequency of several hundreds of THz need to be down-converted to coherent electronic signals propagating on-chip. So far, this has not been achieved because of the overall slow response time of nanoscale electronic circuits. Here, we demonstrate that 14 fs optical pulses in the near-infrared can drive electronic on-chip circuits with a prospective bandwidth up to 10 THz. The corresponding electronic pulses propagate in macroscopic striplines on a millimeter scale. We exploit femtosecond photoswitches based on asymmetric, nanoscale metal junctions to drive the pulses. The non-linear ultrafast response is based on a plasmonically enhanced, multiphoton absorption resulting in a field emission of ballistic hot electrons propagating across the nanoscale junctions. Our results pave the way towards femtosecond electronics integrated in wafer-scale THz circuits.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04666-y

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