Compensation for propagation loss by semiconductor gain medium in MSM plasmonic waveguide

Guo Shiliang; Niu Liyong; Hu Chunhai; Zhu Jun; Meng Liang; Li Zhiquan

For further study of the gain compensation of plasmonic waveguide for the propagation loss in the range of ultraviolet wavelengths, the metal-semiconductor-metal(MSM) plasmonic waveguide structure embedded with semiconductor gain medium was proposed and designed in this article. Based on the finite difference time-domain(FDTD) method, the dependences of propagation loss and effective refractive index on the geometrical parameters of the waveguide structure were analyzed. In addition, the condition for lossless propagation in using II-VI semiconductor material ZnO as the gain medium was investigated. The simulation results show that the lossless gain-assisted surface plasmon polartions propagation in MSM can be achieved for ultraviolet wavelengths when the width of the semiconductor core is 80 nm; and the propagation loss is much less than the gain obviously as the width of ZnO is greater than 80 nm. This achievement can realize the propagation amplification of surface plasmonic polartions, which provides the theoretical support for surface plasmon polariton nano-laser technologies.

1. College of Electrical Engineering,Yanshan University,Qinhuangdao 066004,China

Received Date: 2013-11-19

Rev Recd Date: 2013-12-20

Publish Date: 2014-07-25

Key words:

semiconductor gain medium /
metal-semiconductor-metal plasmonic waveguide /
finite difference time-domain method /
lossless transmission

Abstract: For further study of the gain compensation of plasmonic waveguide for the propagation loss in the range of ultraviolet wavelengths, the metal-semiconductor-metal(MSM) plasmonic waveguide structure embedded with semiconductor gain medium was proposed and designed in this article. Based on the finite difference time-domain(FDTD) method, the dependences of propagation loss and effective refractive index on the geometrical parameters of the waveguide structure were analyzed. In addition, the condition for lossless propagation in using II-VI semiconductor material ZnO as the gain medium was investigated. The simulation results show that the lossless gain-assisted surface plasmon polartions propagation in MSM can be achieved for ultraviolet wavelengths when the width of the semiconductor core is 80 nm; and the propagation loss is much less than the gain obviously as the width of ZnO is greater than 80 nm. This achievement can realize the propagation amplification of surface plasmonic polartions, which provides the theoretical support for surface plasmon polariton nano-laser technologies.

HTML

Reference (35)

[1]	Bames W L, Dereux A, Ebbesen T W. Surface plasmon subwave-length optics [J]. Nature, 2003, 424: 824-830.
[2]
[3]
[4]	Gramotnev D K, Bozhevolnyi S I. Plasmonics beyond the diffraction limit[J]. Nat Photonics, 2010, 4(2): 83-91.
[5]	Li Haihua, Huang Kang, Wang Qingkang. Design of the wideband anti-reflective subwavelength nanostructures [J]. Infrared and Laser Engineering, 2011, 40(2): 267-270. (in Chinese) 李海华, 黄康, 王庆康. 亚波长纳米结构宽波段抗反射特性[J]. 红外与激光工程, 2011, 40(2): 267-270.
[6]
[7]	Burke J J, Stegeman G I, Tamir T. Surface-polariton-like waves guided by thin, lossy metal films [J]. Phys Rev B, 1986, 33(8): 5186-5201.
[8]
[9]	Jin Fengze, Du Chunlei, Shi Lifang, et al. Experiment on the surface plasma resonance imaging sensor [J]. Infrared and Laser Engineering, 2010, 39(2): 275-278. (in Chinese) 金凤泽, 杜春雷, 史立芳, 等. 表面等离子体波成像传感器的实验研究[J]. 红外与激光工程, 2010，39(2): 275-278.
[10]
[11]
[12]	Maziar P N, Kevin T, Yeshaiahu F. Gain assisted propagation of surface plasmon polaritons on planar metallic waveguides[J]. Opt Express, 2004, 12(17): 4072-4079.
[13]
[14]	Noginov M A, Zhu G, Belgrave A M, et al. Tooth-shaped plasmonic waveguide filters with nanometeric size [J]. Opt Express, 2009, 17(16): 13989-13994.
[15]
[16]	Chen X, Bhola B, Huang Y, et al. Multi-level multi-thermal-electron FDTD simulation of plasmonic interaction with semiconducting gain media: applications to plasmonic amplifiers and nano-lasers [J]. Opt Express, 2010, 18 (16): 17220-17238.
[17]
[18]	Viktoriia E Babicheva, Irina V Kulkova, Radu Malureanu. Plasmonic modulator based on gain-assisted metal-semiconductor-metal waveguide [J]. Photonics and Nanostructures-Fundamentals and Applications, 2012, 10: 389-399.
[19]
[20]	Protsenko I, Uskov A, Zaimidoroga O, et al. Dipole nanolaser[J]. Phys Rev A, 2005, 71(6): 063812.
[21]
[22]	Han Z, Elezzabi A Y, Van V. Wideband Y-splitter and aperture-assisted coupler based on sub-diffraction confined plasmonic slot waveguides[J]. Appl Phys Lett, 2010, 96(13): 131106.
[23]
[24]	Gong Y K, Wang L R, Hu X H, et al. Broad-bandgap and low-sidelobe surface plasmon polariton reflector with Bragg-grating-based MIM waveguide[J]. Opt Express, 2009, 17(16): 13727-13736.
[25]
[26]	Tao J, Huang X G, Lin X S. Tooth-shaped plasmonic waveguide filters with nanometeric size [J]. Opt Express, 2009, 17(16): 13989-13994.
[27]
[28]	Liu L, Han Z H, He S L. Novel surface plasmon waveguide for high integration[J]. Opt Express, 2005, 13(17): 6645-6650.
[29]
[30]	Tao Wang, Chen Yanbin, Li Liqun, et al. Process characteristic of laser spot welding for aluminum alloy [J]. Infrared and Laser Engineering, 2011, 40(4): 659-663. (in Chinese) 陶汪, 陈彦宾, 李莉群, 等. 铝合金激光点焊工艺特性研究 [J]. 红外与激光工程, 2011, 40(4): 659-663.
[31]	Rakic A D, Djuristic A B, Elazar J M, et al. Optical properties of metallic films for vertical-cavity optoelectronic devices[J]. Appl Opt, 998, 37(22): 5271-5283.
[32]
[33]	Palik E D. Handbook of Optical Constants of Solids[M]. San Diego: Academic Press, 1985.
[34]
[35]	Huang Y, Ho S T. Computational model of solid-state, molecular, or atomic media for FDTD simulation based on a multi-level multi-electron system governed by Pauli exclusion and Fermi-Dirac thermalization with application to semiconductor photonics [J]. Optics Express, 2006, 14 (8): 3569-3587.

Compensation for propagation loss by semiconductor gain medium in MSM plasmonic waveguide

Abstract

References

Proportional views

通讯作者: 陈斌, bchen63@163.com

Article Metrics

Related

Proportional views