Numerical investigation of an all-optical switch in a graded nonlinear plasmonic grating

We have proposed and numerically investigated an all-optical switch based on a metal–insulator–metal waveguide with graded nonlinear plasmonic gratings. The influences of grating depth and refractive index of a Kerr nonlinear medium on the transmission of the switch are exactly analyzed by utilizing transmission line theory. The finite-difference time-domain simulation results show that the highly compact structure possesses excellent switch function by tuning the incident electric field intensity. In addition, the simulation results show that this all-optical switch has an ultrawide operating frequency regime and femtosecond-scale response time (∼130 fs). Such a switch can find potential applications for all-optical signal processing and optical communication. (paper)