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Integrated plasmonic sources and detectors are imperative in the practical development of plasmonic circuitry for bio- and chemical sensing, nanoscale optical information processing, as well as transducers for high-density optical data storage. Here we show that vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) can be employed as an on-chip, electrically pumped source or detector of plasmonic signals, when operated in forward or reverse bias, respectively. To this end, we experimentally demonstrate surface plasmon polariton excitation, waveguiding, frequency conversion and detection on a VCSEL-based plasmonic platform. The coupling efficiency of the VCSEL emission to waveguided surface plasmon polariton modes has been optimized using asymmetric plasmonic nanostructures. The plasmonic VCSEL platform validated here is a viable solution for practical realizations of plasmonic functionalities for various applications, such as those requiring sub-wavelength field confinement, refractive index sensitivity or optical near-field transduction with electrically driven sources, thus enabling the realization of on-chip optical communication and lab-on-a-chip devices.

Plasmonic metamaterials and metasurfaces are important for many linear\ud and nonlinear photonic applications. Here, the possibility to control a nanostructured\ud layer spontaneously formed near an interface of a thin silver film is\ud shown, where the interplay between a grain boundary structure and surface\ud segregation of germanium atoms leads to encapsulation of the grains and,\ud as the result, formation of a composite metamaterial near the film surface.\ud This Ag/Ge composite exhibits strong localized surface plasmon resonances\ud at Ge-encapsulated silver grains, leading to extraordinary second harmonic\ud generation for both transverse magnetic and transverse electric polarized\ud fundamental light with up to two orders of magnitude enhancement compared\ud to thin Ag films without Ge atoms. Segregation phenomena open the\ud possibility for fabrication of a new class of composite materials and gives\ud additional degree of freedom in designing optical properties of nanostructured\ud metamaterials

Strong electromagnetic field confinement and enhancement can be readily achieved in plasmonic nanoantennas, however, this is considerably more difficult to realize over large areas, which is essential for many applications. Here, dispersion engineering in plasmonic metamaterials is applied to successfully develop and demonstrate a coupled array of plasmonic–dielectric nanoantennas offering an ultrahigh density of electromagnetic hot spots (1011 cm−2) over macroscopic, centimeter scale areas. The hetero‐metamaterial is formed by a highly ordered array of vertically standing plasmonic dipolar antennas with a ZnO gap and fabricated using a scalable electrodeposition technique. It supports a complex modal structure, including guided, surface and gap modes, which offers rich opportunities, frequently beyond the local effective medium theory, with optical properties that can be easily controlled and defined at the fabrication stage. This metamaterial platform can be used in a wide variety of applications, including hot‐electron generation, nanoscale light sources, sensors, as well as nonlinear and memristive devices.