title: Gain enhancement in a hybrid plasmonic nano-waveguide with a low-index or high-index gain medium.
abstract: A theoretical investigation of a nano-scale hybrid plasmonic waveguide with a low-index as well as high-index gain medium is presented. The present hybrid plasmonic waveguide structure consists of a Si substrate, a buffer layer, a high-index dielectric rib, a low-index cladding, a low-index nano-slot, and an inverted metal rib. Due to the field enhancement in the nano-slot region, a gain enhancement is observed, i.e., the ratio ∂G/∂g >1, where g and G are the gains of the gain medium and the TM fundamental mode of the hybrid plasmonic waveguide, respectively. For a hybrid plasmonic waveguide with a core width of w(co)=30nm and a slot height of h(slot)=50nm, the intrinsic loss could be compensated when using a low-index medium with a moderate gain of 176dB/cm. When introducing the high-index gain medium for the hybrid plasmonic waveguide, a higher gain is obtained by choosing a wider core width. For the high-index gain case with h(slot)=50nm and w(co)=500nm, a gain of about 200dB/cm also suffices for the compensation of the intrinsic loss.
authors: Centre for Optical and Electromagnetic Research, State Key Laboratory for Modern Optical Instrumentation, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Sensing Technologies, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. dxdai@zju.edu.cn
authors: Daoxin
authors: D
authors: Dai
authors: Yaocheng
authors: Y
authors: Shi
authors: Sailing
authors: S
authors: He
authors: Lech
authors: L
authors: Wosinski
authors: Lars
authors: L
authors: Thylen
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008027:Light; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*; D018511:Systems Integration