Future green technology: freezing water micro-droplet as an all-optical switch based on time domain photonic hook

Abstract

Here we show that mesoscale freezing water droplet with low Bond number can behave as fully biocompatible natural microlenses to form the photonic hook in application to tunable optical switch. We first introduce and demonstrated the basic concepts of all-optical switch without changes in the wavelength of illumination of a particle or any moving parts involved. The principle of operation of the switch based on the temperature-induced phase change inside water droplet refractive index. Simulation shows that the optical isolation of switched channels for an optical switch with linear dimensions of about 15{\lambda}3, based on freezing water droplet, can reach 10 dB during the temperature variation at fixed wavelength. The freezing mesoscale droplets acting as time domain photonic hook generator open the intriguing route for full optical switching in a multifunctional green electronics tool for sensing, integrated optics and optical computers.Comment: 5 figures, 8 page