Nanoscale Plasmon Sources: Physical Principles and Novel Structures

Abstract

Started by M. Stockman with his proposed idea of a nanoscale quantum genera- tor of plasmons that he called surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (SPASER) in 2002, during the last two decades various devices have been proposed, fabricated, and tested for SPASERs or plasmonic nanolasers which have almost the same meaning. Despite all these efforts, there are still serious barriers in front of these devices to be an ideal nanoscale coherent source of surface plasmons. The main challenges are the difficulty of fabrication, over-heating, low output powers, high loss rates, lack of integration capability with commercial fabrication processes, inefficient performance in room temperature, and so on. In this chapter, governing principles of nanolaser operation are discussed. Impor- tant parameters, limitations, and design challenges are explained, and some of the proposed or fabricated structures are presented and their merits and demerits are expressed. Eventually, several novel structures resulting from our works are introduced, and their performances are compared to the state-of-the-art structures.