Observation of stimulated emission of surface plasmon polaritons.
We report a direct experimental evidence of stimulated emission of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at telecom wavelengths (1532 nm) with erbium doped glass as a gain medium. We observe an increase in the propagation length of signal surface plasmons when erbium ions are excited optically using pump SPP. The design, fabrication, and characterization of SPP waveguides, thin gold metal strips, embedded in erbium (Er) doped phosphate glass is presented. Such systems can be suitable as integrated devices coupling electronic and photonic data transmissions as well as SPP amplifiers and SPP lasers.
NSF Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center, 3112 Etcheverry Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Muralidhar
M
Ambati
Sung Hyun
SH
Nam
Erick
E
Ulin-Avila
Dentcho A
DA
Genov
Guy
G
Bartal
Xiang
X
Zhang