Low-threshold lasing action in photonic crystal slabs enabled by Fano resonances

Chua, Song-Liang; Chong, Yidong; Stone, A. Douglas; Soljačić, Marin; Bravo‐Abad, Jorge

doi:10.1364/oe.19.001539

Cited by 103 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…As long as the presence of this second lasing mode does not violate the SIA, the corresponding two-mode lasing solution is considered stable (as was previously verified using FDTD simulations [18,34,35]). As we will demonstrate through a comparison to timedependent solutions of the MB equations, this simple criterion can not be applied for nearly degenerate modes.…”

Section: Short Review Of Saltsupporting

confidence: 54%

“…This is the case described by SALT, in which the MB equations are simplified to a set of time-independent, non-Hermitian, nonlinear and coupled Helmholtz equations. The solutions of these SALT equations are much more efficiently calculated than those of the MB equations [18,25,34,35].…”

Section: Short Review Of Saltmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, the stability of the solutions obtained from our extended SALT approach has to be verified. Up to now such additional stability checks were always done using direct time-dependent simulations of the MB equations [18,25,34,35]. One of the reasons for using SALT, however, is exactly to avoid this kind of computationally very demanding numerics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Steady-stateab initiolaser theory for fully or nearly degenerate cavity modes

et al. 2015

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We investigate the range of validity of the recently developed steady-state ab-initio laser theory (SALT). While very efficient in describing various microlasers, SALT is conventionally believed not to be applicable to lasers featuring fully or nearly degenerate pairs of resonator modes above the lasing threshold. Here we demonstrate how SALT can indeed be extended to describe such cases as well, with the effect that we significantly broaden the theory's scope. In particular, we show how to use SALT in conjunction with a linear stability analysis to obtain stable single-mode lasing solutions that involve a degenerate mode pair. Our flexible and efficient approach is tested on one-dimensional ring lasers as well as on two-dimensional microdisk lasers with broken symmetry.

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Section: Short Review Of Saltsupporting

confidence: 54%

Section: Short Review Of Saltmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Steady-stateab initiolaser theory for fully or nearly degenerate cavity modes

et al. 2015

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“…The narrow width of the high-Q state indicates that it may be useful in the design of narrow-band waveguiding structures and single-mode lasers. 50,51 As compared to high-Q Fano states at the C point, [17][18][19][20][21]23 this state offers two unique advantages: (i) the angle at which it occurs is tunable; and (ii) the radiative Q of this state can be tuned to arbitrary values by using a non-perfect reflector or by weakly breaking one of the symmetry requirements. The enhanced lifetime, large surface area and strong localization of these surface states also suggest that they may find use in fluorescence enhancement, 52 spectroscopy, 53 sensing 54 and other applications where strong light-matter interaction is desired.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bloch surface eigenstates within the radiation continuum

et al. 2013

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From detailed numerical calculations, we demonstrate that in simple photonic crystal structures, a discrete number of Bloch surface-localized eigenstates can exist inside the continuum of free-space modes. Coupling to the free space causes the surface modes to leak, but the forward and back-reflected leakage may interfere destructively to create a perfectly bound surface state with zero leakage. We perform analytical temporal coupled-mode theory analysis to show the generality of such phenomenon and its robustness from variations of system parameters. Periodicity, time-reversal invariance, two-fold rotational symmetry and a perfectly reflecting boundary are necessary for these unique states.

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“…As deduced from the above results, the optimal lasing regime is instead associated to the excitation (via the stimulated emission from the gain medium) of dark plasmonic resonances and, therefore, occurs when λ e = λ D . Much in the same way as occurs in the case of lasing action assisted by dark Fano modes in photonic crystals [34], laser photons can PHYSICAL REVIEW B 91, 041118(R) (2015) be emitted from the sides of the system (i.e., emitted in the plane of periodicity), or, alternatively, in the vertical direction (normal to the plane of periodicity) by perturbing the perfectly periodic lattice of the considered plasmonic crystals. Next, we compared the lasing characteristics of nanowire arrays and slit arrays operating at their corresponding optimal regimes.…”

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confidence: 94%

Theory of lasing action in plasmonic crystals

et al. 2015

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We theoretically investigate lasing action in plasmonic crystals incorporating optically pumped four-level gain media. By using detailed simulations based on a time-domain generalization of the finite-element method, we show that the excitation of dark plasmonic resonances (via the gain medium) enables accessing the optimal lasing characteristics of the considered class of systems. Moreover, our study reveals that, in general, arrays of nanowires feature lower lasing thresholds and larger slope efficiencies than those corresponding to periodic arrays of subwavelength apertures. These findings are of relevance for further engineering of active devices based on plasmonic crystals. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.91.041118 PACS number(s): 78.67. Pt, 73.20.Mf, 78.45.+h Coherent light generation at the nanoscale is one of the critical stepping stones for the ultimate control of the light fields. In this context, plasmonic structures have recently emerged as versatile platforms for achieving lasing action at length scales well below the diffraction limit [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Very recently, it has been demonstrated that plasmon-assisted lasing action is not restricted to single nanocavity systems, but can be also observed in structures supporting extended plasmonic resonances, such as periodic arrays of metallic nanoparticles [17] and periodic arrays of subwavelength apertures milled in a metallic film [18]. These works reported independently on the unique ability of the corresponding metallic periodic structure (plasmonic crystal) to collect all the lasing light produced at the nanoscale and emit it to the far field in the form of a collimated beam. Although in a closely related context a detailed study of the spatiotemporal dynamics of lasing in gain-enhanced plasmonic nano-fishnet structures has been reported [19], a general study that explores the lasing properties of plasmonic crystals from a unified perspective is-to our knowledge-still lacking. In this work we address this issue and present a fundamental theoretical analysis of the dynamics and steady-state characteristics of lasing action in plasmonic crystals consisting of periodic arrays of metallic nanowires and subwavelength apertures embedded in an optically pumped four-level gain medium.The insets of Figs. 1(a) and 1(b) render schematic views of the two model systems under study. For simplicity, we consider plasmonic crystals displaying one-dimensional periodicity along the x direction and continuous translational symmetry along the z direction (see the axes definition in the insets of Fig. 1). These structures support surface electromagnetic modes that resemble those decorating their two-dimensionally periodic counterparts [20] (this is particularly the case for thin-film plasmonic crystals, as the ones studied below). Therefore, the considered model systems are able to capture the fundamental physical phenomena governing the interaction of those surface modes with a four-level gain medium.The first analyzed configuration [in...

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Low-threshold lasing action in photonic crystal slabs enabled by Fano resonances

Cited by 103 publications

References 52 publications

Steady-stateab initiolaser theory for fully or nearly degenerate cavity modes

Steady-stateab initiolaser theory for fully or nearly degenerate cavity modes

Bloch surface eigenstates within the radiation continuum

Theory of lasing action in plasmonic crystals

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