Loss compensation in metal-loaded hybrid plasmonic waveguides using Yb3+ potassium double tungstate gain materials

The compensation of propagation losses of plasmonic nanowaveguides will constitute an important milestone towards the widespread use of these structures as enabling components for highly dense, fast, on-chip nanophotonic circuitry. Rare-earth doped double tungstate gain materials can not only provide elevated modal gain per unit length, but are capable of the amplification of very high rate signals, making them excellent potential candidates for such application. In this paper, a model that permits simulating plasmonic structures in rare-earth doped potassium double tungstates is described. The model is applied to study the achievable net gain in metal-loaded hybrid plasmonic waveguides with different structural parameters.