DOI: 10.1063/1.3673849. Practicality of compensating the loss in the plasmonic waveguides using semiconductor gain medium

Practicality of compensating the loss in the plasmonic waveguides using semiconductor gain medium

10.1063/1.3673849

Crossref journal-article

AIP Publishing

Applied Physics Letters (317)

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.

Bibliography

Khurgin, J. B., & Sun, G. (2012). Practicality of compensating the loss in the plasmonic waveguides using semiconductor gain medium. Applied Physics Letters, 100(1).

Authors 2

Jacob B. Khurgin (first)
Greg Sun (additional)

References 20 Referenced 92

10.1002/9780470994535 / Silicon Photonics: The State of the Art by Reed (2008)
10.1007/0-387-37825-1 / Plasmonics, Fundamentals and Applications by Maier (2007)
10.1038/nature01937 / Nature (2003)
10.1103/PhysRevB.6.4370 / Phys. Rev. B (1972)
10.1364/OPEX.12.004072 / Opt. Express (2004)
10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.027402 / Phys. Rev. Lett. (2003)
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{'volume-title': 'Diode Lasers and Photonic Integrated Circuits', 'year': '1995', 'author': 'Coldren', 'key': '2023073108174688400_c15'} / Diode Lasers and Photonic Integrated Circuits by Coldren (1995)
10.1103/PhysRev.69.37 / Phys. Rev. (1946)
10.1038/nature08318 / Nature (2009)
10.1364/OE.19.008954 / Opt. Express (2011)
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Dates

Type	When
Created	13 years, 7 months ago (Jan. 6, 2012, 11:48 a.m.)
Deposited	2 years, 1 month ago (July 31, 2023, 4:17 a.m.)
Indexed	1 month ago (July 30, 2025, 6:57 a.m.)
Issued	13 years, 7 months ago (Jan. 2, 2012)
Published	13 years, 7 months ago (Jan. 2, 2012)
Published Online	13 years, 7 months ago (Jan. 4, 2012)
Published Print	13 years, 7 months ago (Jan. 2, 2012)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Khurgin_2012, title={Practicality of compensating the loss in the plasmonic waveguides using semiconductor gain medium}, volume={100}, ISSN={1077-3118}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3673849}, DOI={10.1063/1.3673849}, number={1}, journal={Applied Physics Letters}, publisher={AIP Publishing}, author={Khurgin, Jacob B. and Sun, Greg}, year={2012}, month=jan }

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