hybrid plasmon polariton

[doyoucompute]

We've done a lot of talking in this class about miniaturizing transistors and as such the actual logic blocks of integrated circuits, however a huge limiting factor in the miniaturization of integrated circuits is the interconnects -- which are usually bigger/ more unwieldy. There are a number of really interesting research projects going on to fix this problem, I thought some of you might be interested in reading about. This first one is a really 'cool' idea -- it uses spin valves as a microwave current source, however it's very far from practical application. 

(http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=5703217&tag=1)

The second method I wanted to bring to everyone's attention, however, is much closer to practical application. Until fairly recently (2011), optical waveguides on the nano-scale were impossible, because of the high loss due to fractional wavelength propagation modes. However a group in cooperation between Lawrence Livermore National Lab and UC Berkeley were able to demonstrate a practical waveguide structure that could guide visible light 10x it's free space wavelength, and IR light even further. The actual physics of how they did this involves a quasi-particle called a hybrid plasmon polariton (HPP). The physical structure of the waveguide is a semi-conductor (high dielectric) above a metal interface, separated by a small gap. The idea is for as much of the wave's energy to propagate in the gap between semi-conductor and metal, as the loss will be much smaller. 

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2011/05/31/nanoscale-waveguide-for-future-photonics/

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=5706056 (paper talking about HPP's.)

The neat thing about this technology is it is completely compatible with current circuit elements. The paper states that it could be ready for practical mass implementation in ~5 yrs. I'm not sure if there is a more recent paper with updates, I haven't seen anything -- perhaps one of you have?

JR