Title
Practicality of compensating the loss in the plasmonic waveguides using semiconductor gain medium
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-4-2012
Abstract
We consider the issue of compensating the loss in plasmonic waveguides with semiconductor gain material and show that, independent of specific geometry, full loss compensation in plasmonic waveguides with significantly sub-wavelength light confinement (less than λ/4n) requires current density well in excess of 100 kA/cm2. This high current density is attributed to the unavoidable shortening of recombination time caused by the Purcell effect inherent to sub-wavelength confinement. Consequently, an injection-pumped plasmonic laser that is truly sub-wavelength in all three dimensions (“spaser”) would have threshold current densities that are hard to obtain in any conceivable semiconductor device.
Recommended Citation
Khurgin, Jacob B. and Sun, Greg, "Practicality of compensating the loss in the plasmonic waveguides using semiconductor gain medium" (2012). Physics Faculty Publications. 4.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/physics_faculty_pubs/4
Publisher
American Institute of Physics
Rights
Copyright 2012 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.
Comments
The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters, vol. 100, issue 1 (2012) and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3673849.
Copyright 2012 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.