Plasmonics in Future Radio Communications: Potential and Challenges

Plasmonics is increasingly emerging as an alternative to photonics. It has the potential to revolutionize the field of communications and radio science as it gives the user access to devices with highest bandwidths, on a most compact footprint and at lowest power consumption. And while the potentials are many, the technology also has its challenges. So, for instance, plasmonic fabrication requires a technology that can handle features with a 10 nanometer precision and better. Another aspect relates to plasmonic losses. Losses are inherent to the technology that is why device sizes need to be kept small and RF-to-light interaction must be maximized.In this review, we summarize the state in the field and comment on potentials and challenges of plasmonics in view of communications and radio science applications.