Fig. 1: Schematics of configuration and nanofabrication of plasmonic metafibers for electro-optic modulators (EOMs).

a Layer structure of plasmonic metafiber EOMs. The device consists of three layers: plasmonic nanoeye metasurfaces (bottom layer), EO polymer (middle layer) and a uniform Au film (top layer), which are integrated on the endface of a single mode fiber jumper (SMFJ). The inset shows the chemical structure of EO polymer and the working principle of EOMs. The reflectance amplitude of optical signals can be modulated between ‘open’ (logic ‘1’) and ‘close’ (logic ‘0’) states by applying bias voltages. b Nanofabrication flow to prepare the plasmonic metafiber EOMs. The top inset is an optical image of the metafiber after the spin-coating of EO polymer. The bottom inset is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of the plasmonic nanoeye array on the fiber enface. The scale bars in the optical image and SEM image are 62.5 μm and 850 nm, respectively