Title :
Surface Plasmon Amplification in Planar Metal Films
Author :
Genov, Dentcho A. ; Ambati, Muralidhar ; Zhang, Xiang
Author_Institution :
Univ. of California, Berkeley
Abstract :
The propagation and amplification of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) is studied at the interfaces between metals and active media. A permittivity renormalization technique is proposed and developed to obtain an explicit analytic expression for the critical gain required to achieve infinite SPP propagation length. A specific multiple quantum-well (MQW) system is identified as a prospective medium for demonstrating efficient SPP amplification at telecommunication frequencies. The proposed system may have a strong impact on a variety of photonic devices ranging from plasmonic nanocircuits, subwavelength transmission lines and plasmonic cavities to nanosized transducers.
Keywords :
metallic thin films; polaritons; quantum wells; surface plasmons; multiple quantum-well system; permittivity renormalization; planar metal films; plasmonic cavities; surface plasmon amplification; Composite materials; Frequency; Nanoscale devices; Optical surface waves; Permittivity; Plasmons; Quantum well devices; Rough surfaces; Surface roughness; Surface waves; Multiple quantum wells (MQWs); planar metal films; surface plasmons;
Journal_Title :
Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JQE.2007.905904