Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten

DS 1: Nanophotonics - Devices I (Focused Session together with HL)

DS 1.6: Topical Talk

Monday, March 22, 2010, 12:45–13:15, H2

Fundamental formulation of nanoplasmonic lasers — •Shun Chuang — University of Illinois, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1406 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois, 61801, USA

The smallest laser conventionally requires an optical cavity with a size of one half of the effective wavelength in all three directions, which is often referred as the diffraction limit of the cavity. To make a laser with an active volume smaller than the diffraction limit, an idea is to surround the optical waveguide with metals. In this case, the effective volume of the optical mode can be significantly reduced in spite of a higher intrinsic absorption due to the metal loss at optical frequencies. By placing the active materials such as quantum dots or quantum wells near the region of peak optical field, it is possible to enhance the spontaneous and stimulated emissions to overcome the intrinsic loss from metals.

In this talk, we will present a fundamental formulation for nanoplasmonic lasers, which accounts for the negative permittivity and dispersion of metal plasma in a nanocavity. We point out the importance of using the energy (instead of power) confinement factor. We then discuss the ideas of a Fabry-Perot type of plasmonic waveguide laser and a nano-bowtie optical antenna coupled to semiconductor quantum dots, which function as the gain medium.