Surface plasmon nanolaser: Principle, structure, characteristics and applications

Abstract

Photonic devices are becoming more and more miniaturized and highly integrated with the advancement of micro-nano technology and the rapid development of integrated optics. Traditional semiconductor lasers have diffraction limit due to the feedback from the optical system, and their cavity length is more than half of the emission wavelength, so it is difficult to achieve miniaturization. Nanolasers based on surface plasmons can break through the diffraction limit and achieve deep sub-wavelength or even nano-scale laser emission. The improvement of modern nanomaterial preparation processes and the gradual maturity of micro-nano machining technology have also provided technical conditions for the development of sub-wavelength and nano-scale lasers. This paper describes the basic principles of surface plasmons and nano-resonators. The structure and characteristics of several kinds of plasmonic nanolasers are discussed. Finally, the paper looks forward to the application and development trend of nanolasers.