Two-dimensional plasmonic waveguides for nanolasing and four-wave mixing

Abstract

Plasmonic waveguides are an essential element of nanoscale coherent sources, including nanolasers and four-wave mixing (FWM) devices. Here we report how the design of the plasmonic waveguide needs to be guided by the ultimate application. This contrasts with traditional approaches in which the waveguide is considered in isolation. We find that hybrid plasmonic waveguides, with a nonlinear material sandwiched between the metal substrate and a high-index layer, are best suited for FWM applications, whereas metallic wedges are preferred in nanolasers. We also find that in plasmonic nanolasers high-index buffer layers perform better than more traditional low-index buffers.

Nanoscale nonlinear plasmonics in photonic waveguides and circuits

“…Subsequent work [125] proposed the concept "nonlinear effectiveness", which quantifies a mode's capacity to use a certain material's maximum nonlinearity: it was shown that this requires a strong electric energy confinement, and broadband slow light effects. A comprehensive comparison of several material and geometry combinations suggested that MDM structures perform best for compact efficient nonlinear optics [128].…”