A three-dimensional (3D) nanoscale optical router is a much-desired component in 3D stacked optical integrated circuits. However, existing 3D routers based on dielectric configurations suffer from large footprints and nanoscale routers based on plasmonic antennas only work in a 2D in-plane scene. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate cross-layered all-optical 3D routers with nanoscale footprints. Optical slot antenna pairs are used to realize the routing of plasmonic signals between different layers for arbitrary direction in a broadband wavelength range. The routers are also integrated with waveguide directly for exploring further applications. Based on these router elements, a 3D network of optical butterfly interconnection is demonstrated for multi-directional all-optical data communication. The proposed configuration paves the way for optical cross-layer routing on the nanoscale and advances the research and applications for 3D plasmonic circuits with high integration density in the future.

中文翻译：

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通过光学天线的三维等离子体纳米路由器

三维 (3D) 纳米级光学路由器是 3D 堆叠光学集成电路中非常需要的组件。然而，现有的基于电介质配置的 3D 路由器占用空间大，而基于等离子体天线的纳米级路由器只能在 2D 平面场景中工作。在这里，我们提出并通过实验证明了具有纳米级足迹的跨层全光 3D 路由器。光学缝隙天线对用于在宽带波长范围内实现不同层之间任意方向的等离子体信号路由。路由器还直接与波导集成，以探索进一步的应用。基于这些路由器元件，展示了用于多向全光数据通信的光蝶形互连的 3D 网络。