CMOS-Compatible Electronic–Plasmonic Transducers Based on Plasmonic Tunnel Junctions and Schottky Diodes

To develop methods to generate, manipulate, and detect plasmonic signals by electrical means with complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible materials is essential to realize on-chip electronic–plasmonic transduction. Here, electrically driven, CMOS-compatible electronic–plasmonic transducers with Al–AlO_X–Cu tunnel junctions as the excitation source of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and Si–Cu Schottky diodes as the detector of SPPs, connected via plasmonic strip waveguides of Cu, are demonstrated. Remarkably, the electronic–plasmonic transducers exhibit overall transduction efficiency of 1.85 ± 0.03%, five times higher than previously reported transducers with two tunnel junctions (metal–insulator–metal (MIM)–MIM transducers) where SPPs are detected based on optical rectification. The result establishes a new platform to convert electronic signals to plasmonic signals via electrical means, paving the way toward CMOS-compatible plasmonic components.