Nano-photodiodes with a subwavelength active area using the optical near-field enhanced by surface plasmon resonance are proposed. We fabricated a Si Schottky photodiode that consists of an active area of 300 nm in diameter and a surface plasmon antenna to generate the carrier within the active area efficiently. The fabricated photodiode shows an increase of the photocurrent by several tenfold compared to that without a surface plasmon antenna. This result suggests an enhanced photogeneration of carriers in a semiconductor via surface plasmon resonance. Such a Si nano-photodiode is a potential high-speed optical signal detector because the opto-electronic conversion process occurs within a subwavelength scale.

We demonstrate an $\sim {10}^4$ increase in conversion efficiency for optical second-harmonic generation (SHG) from a periodically nanostructured metal structure consisting of a single subwavelength aperture in a thin silver film surrounded by a set of concentric surface grooves. The forward-transmitted second-harmonic radiation from this structure is measured relative to that from an identical aperture with no surrounding surface periodicity. We explain the observed SHG enhancement quantitatively in terms of a measured $120\times$ increase in the strength of the fundamental radiation in the vicinity of the aperture resulting from the periodic nanostructuring.

We describe a cost-effective and low-power-consumption approach for on-chip optical interconnection. This approach includes an investigation into architectures, devices, and materials. We have proposed and fabricated a bonded structure of an Si-based optical layer on a large-scale integration (LSI) chip. The fabricated optical layer contains Si nanophotodiodes for optical detectors, which are coupled with SiON waveguides using surface-plasmon antennas. Optical signals were introduced to the optical layer and distributed to the Si nanophotodiodes. The output signals from the photodiodes were sent electrically to the transimpedance-amplifier circuitries in the LSI. The signals from the photodiodes triggered of the circuitries at 5 GHz. Since electrooptical modulators consume the most power in on-chip optical interconnect systems and require a large footprint, they are critical to establish on-chip optical interconnection. Two approaches are investigated: 1) an architecture using a fewer number of modulators and 2) high electrooptical coefficient materials.

We demonstrate the terahertz-wave near-field imaging with subwavelength resolution using a bow-tie shaped aperture surrounded by concentric periodic structures in a metal film. A subwavelength aperture with concentric periodic grooves, which are known as a bull’s eye structure, shows extremely large enhanced transmission beyond the diffraction limit caused by the resonant excitation of surface waves. Additionally, a bow-tie aperture exhibits extraordinary field enhancement at the sharp tips of the metal, which enhances the transmission and the subwavelength spatial resolution. We introduced a bow-tie aperture to the bull’s eye structure and achieved high spatial resolution (∼λ∕17) in the near-field region. The terahertz-wave near-field image of the subwavelength metal pattern (pattern width=20μm) was obtained for the wavelength of 207μm.

The corrosion resistance of soft magnetic films is an important property to be considered in the manufacture of magnetic devices. We investigated the corrosion behavior of the electrodeposited CoNiFe film with desired soft magnetic properties by varying the crystalline structure and the amount of included sulfur. The corrosion property in 2.5% NaCI solution depends largely on the sulfur content and also on the structure of the film. Although the CoNiFe film contains more than 13 atom % Fe, the film of face‐centered to body‐centered cubic mixed crystals exhibits a high anticorrosion property because of very small grain size with essentially no sulfur inclusion (<0.1 atom %). © 1999 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved. ©2001 American Geophysical Union