Optimization of gain-assisted waveguiding in metal-dielectric nanowires
Date
2010-12-15
Authors
Handapangoda, Dayan
Rukhlenko, Ivan D
Premaratne, Malin
Jagadish, Chennupati
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Optical Society of America
Abstract
We theoretically demonstrate that, for a given diameter of the core-pumped metal-dielectric nanowire, there is an optimum thickness of the metallic cladding that provides the maximum propagation length of the lowest-order surface plasmon polariton (SPP) modes. If the nanowire is fabricated with the optimum cladding thickness, the lowest pumping power is required to fully compensate for the SPP propagation losses. We also show that a strong confinement of SPPs within the nanowire can be achieved, but at the expense of either high optical gains or large nanowire diameters. For example, a gain of 565 cm(-1) would suffice to make up for the decay of SPPs in a 250-nm-thick silver-GaAs nanowire; the confinement of optical power within such nanowires exceeds 90%, which makes them ideal interconnects for nanophotonic circuitry.
Description
Keywords
Keywords: Cladding thickness; Dielectric nanowires; Gaas nanowires; High optical gain; Metallic cladding; Optical power; Optimum thickness; Propagation lengths; Propagation loss; Pumping power; Strong confinement; Surface plasmon polariton modes; Wave-guiding; Diel
Citation
Collections
Source
Optics letters
Type
Journal article