title: Plasmonic lasing of nanocavity embedding in metallic nanoantenna array.
abstract: Plasmonic nanolasers have ultrahigh lasing thresholds, especially those devices for which all three dimensions are truly subwavelength. Because of a momentum mismatch between the propagating light and localized optical field of the subwavelength nanocavity, poor optical pumping efficiency is another important reason for the ultrahigh threshold but is normally always ignored. On the basis of a cavity-embedded nanoantenna array design, we demonstrate a room-temperature low-threshold plasmonic nanolaser that is robust, reproducible, and easy-to-fabricate using chemical-template lithography. The mode volume of the device is ∼0.22(λ/2n)(3) (here, λ is resonant wavelength and n is the refractive index), and the experimental lasing threshold produced is ∼2.70MW/mm(2). The lasing polarization and the function of nanoantenna array are investigated in detail. Our work provides a new strategy to achieve room-temperature low-threshold plasmonic nanolasers of interest in applications to biological sensoring and information technology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Optics and Optical Engineering, Anhui Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yonghua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Mingzhuo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Douguo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Hai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ming
authors.forename: Pei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D007834:Lasers; D008670:Metals / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures
chemical_list: D008670:Metals
keywords: Plasmonic lasing; nanoantenna array; nanocavity; surface plasmon