Spaser as Nanoscale Quantum Generator and Ultrafast Amplifier
Mark I. Stockman

TL;DR
This paper demonstrates that the spaser can function as an ultrafast nanoamplifier with gain over 50 and switching times around 100 femtoseconds, opening new possibilities in nanoscience and ultrafast technologies.
Contribution
The authors show how to overcome inherent feedback in spasers, enabling their use as ultrafast nanoamplifiers in transient and bistable modes based on quantum density matrix equations.
Findings
Spaser can amplify with gain >50
Switching time is approximately 100 fs
Potential for ultrafast microprocessors at 10-100 THz
Abstract
Nanoplasmonics has recently experienced explosive development with many novel ideas and dramatic achievements in both fundamentals and applications. The spaser has been predicted and observed experimentally as an active element -- generator of coherent local fields. Even greater progress will be achieved if the spaser could function as a ultrafast nanoamplifier -- an optical counterpart of the MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor). A formidable problem with this is that the spaser has the inherent feedback causing quantum generation of nanolocalized surface plasmons and saturation and consequent elimination of the net gain, making it unsuitable for amplification. We have overcome this inherent problem and shown that the spaser can perform functions of an ultrafast nanoamplifier in two modes: transient and bistable. On the basis of quantum density matrix (optical…
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