Single carbon nanotubes as ultrasmall all-optical memories

Abstract

Performance improvements are expected from integration of photonic devices into information processing systems, and in particular, all-optical memories provide a key functionality. Scaling down the size of memory elements is desirable for high-density integration, and the use of nanomaterials would allow for devices that are significantly smaller than the operation wavelengths. Here we report on all-optical memory based on individual carbon nanotubes, where adsorbed molecules give rise to optical bistability. By exciting at the high-energy tail of the excitonic absorption resonance, nanotubes can be switched between the desorbed state and the adsorbed state. We demonstrate reversible and reproducible operation of the nanotube optical memory, and determine the rewriting speed by measuring the molecular adsorption and desorption times. Our results underscore the impact of molecular-scale effects on optical properties of nanomaterials, offering new design strategies for photonic devices that are a few orders of magnitude smaller than the optical diffraction limit.

8 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Exciton binding energies in carbon nanotubes from two-photon photoluminescence
• Ultralow mode-volume photonic crystal nanobeam cavities for high efficiency coupling to individual carbon nanotube emitters
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• Exciton diffusion, end quenching, and exciton-exciton annihilation in individual air-suspended carbon nanotubes
• Light Emission in Silicon from Carbon Nanotubes
• Optical control of individual carbon nanotube light emitters by spectral double resonance in silicon microdisk resonators
• Gate-controlled generation of optical pulse trains using individual carbon nanotubes

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Spectral tuning of optical coupling between air-mode nanobeam cavities and individual carbon nanotubes
• Quantum emission assisted by energy landscape modification in pentacene-decorated carbon nanotubes
• Molecular screening effects on exciton-carrier interactions in suspend carbon nanotubes
• Intrinsic process for upconversion photoluminescence via $K$-momentum phonon coupling in carbon nanotubes