Abstract

We demonstrate lasing in Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) waveguides filled with electrically pumped semiconductor cores, with core width dimensions below the diffraction limit. Furthermore these waveguides propagate a transverse magnetic (TM0) or so called gap plasmon mode [1-4]. Hence we show that losses in sub-wavelength MIM waveguides can be overcome to create small plasmon mode lasers at wavelengths near 1500nm. We also give results showing room temperature lasing in MIM waveguides, with approximately 310nm wide semiconductor cores which propagate a transverse electric mode.

© 2009 OSA

» View Full Text: Acrobat PDF (562 KB) 

History
Original Manuscript: April 14, 2009
Manuscript Accepted: June 9, 2009
Revised Manuscript: June 8, 2009
Published: June 18, 2009

References

1. R. Zia, M. D. Selker, P. B. Catrysse, and M. L. Brongersma, “Geometries and materials for subwavelength surface plasmon modes,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 21(12), 2442–2446 (2004). [CrossRef]
2. J. A. Dionne, L. A. Sweatlock, H. A. Atwater, and A. Polman, “Plasmon slot waveguides: Towards chip-scale propagation with subwavelength-scale localization,” Phys. Rev. B 73(3), 035407 (2006). [CrossRef]
3. F. Kusunoki, T. Yotsuya, J. Takahara, and T. Kobayashi, “Propagation properties of guided waves in index-guided two-dimensional optical waveguide,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 86(21), 211101 (2005). [CrossRef]
4. K. Tanaka and M. Tanaka, “Simulations of nanometric optical circuits based on surface plasmon polariton gap waveguide,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 82(8), 1158–1160 (2003). [CrossRef]
5. H. A. Atwater, “The promise of plasmonics,” Sci. Am. 296, 38–45 (2007).
6. D. J. Bergman and M. I. Stockman, “Surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation: quantum generation of coherent surface plasmons in nanosystems,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 90(2), 027402 (2003). [CrossRef]
7. J. Seidel, S. Grafström, and L. Eng, “Stimulated emission of surface plasmons at the interface between a silver film and an optically pumped dye solution,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 94(17), 177401 (2005). [CrossRef]
8. M. Ambati, S. H. Nam, E. Ulin-Avila, D. A. Genov, G. Bartal, and X. Zhang, “Observation of stimulated emission of surface plasmon polaritons,” Nano Lett. 8(11), 3998–4001 (2008). [CrossRef]
9. M. A. Noginov, G. Zhu, M. Mayy, B. A. Ritzo, N. Noginova, and V. A. Podolskiy, “Stimulated emission of surface plasmon polaritons,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 101(22), 226806 (2008). [CrossRef]
10. D. M. Koller, A. Hohenau, H. Ditlbacher, N. Galler, F. Reil, F. R. Aussenegg, A. Leitner, E. J. W. List, and J. R. Krenn, “Organic plasmon-emitting diode,” Nat. Photonics 2(11), 684–687 (2008). [CrossRef]
11. S. A. Maier, “Gain-assisted propagation of electromagnetic energy in subwavelength surface plasmon polariton gap waveguides,” Opt. Commun. 258(2), 295–299 (2006). [CrossRef]
12. A. Maslov and C. Z. Ning, “Size reduction of a semiconductor nanowire laser using metal coating,” Proc. SPIE 6468, 646801–646807 (2007).
13. M. T. Hill, Y.-S. Oei, B. Smalbrugge, Y. Zhu, T. de Vries, P. J. van Veldhoven, F. W. M. van Otten, T. J. Eijkemans, J. P. Turkiewicz, H. de Waardt, E. J. Geluk, S.-H. Kwon, Y.-H. Lee, R. Nötzel, and M. K. Smit, “Lasing in Metallic-Coated Nanocavities,” Nat. Photonics 1(10), 589–594 (2007). [CrossRef]
14. R. E. Slusher, A. F. J. Levi, U. Mohideen, S. L. McCall, S. J. Pearton, and R. A. Logan, “Threshold characteristics of semiconductor microdisk lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 63(10), 1310–1312 (1993). [CrossRef]
15. A. V. Maslov, and C. Z. Ning, Nitride Semiconductor Devices, Principles and Simulation. Joachim Piprek (Ed.) (WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH, Weinheim 2007).
16. B. R. Bennett, R. A. Soref, and J. A. Del Alamo, “Carrier-induced change in refractive index of InP, GaAs, and InGaAsP,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 26(1), 113–122 (1990). [CrossRef]
17. R. F. Oulton, V. J. Sorger, D. F. P. Pile, D. A. Genov, and X. Zhang, “A hybrid plasmonic waveguide for sub-wavelength confinement and long range propagation,” Nat. Photonics 2(8), 496–500 (2008). [CrossRef]
18. L. D. Landau, and E. M. Lifshitz, Electrodynamics of continuous media, (Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1960).
19. M. Asada, Y. Miyamoto, and Y. Suematsu, “Gain and the threshold of three-dimensional quantum-box lasers,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. QE-22(9), 1915–1921 (1986). [CrossRef]
20. A. Yariv, Quantum electronics, (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1989).

Author Affiliations

Martin T. Hill, Milan Marell, Barry Smalbrugge, Youcai Zhu, Peter J. van Veldhoven, Erik Jan Geluk, Fouad Karouta, Yok-Siang Oei, Richard Nötzel, Meint K. Smit

COBRA Research Institute, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Postbus 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Eunice S. P. Leong, Minghua Sun, Cun-Zheng Ning

Department of Electrical Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ 85287, USA

Cited By

OSA is able to provide readers links to articles that cite this paper by participating in CrossRef's Cited-By Linking service. In addition to listing OSA journal articles that cite this paper, citing articles from other participating publishers will also be listed.

Advanced Search

Recent ToC Categories (Beta)