Self-consistent calculations of loss compensated fishnet metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper introduces a computational method for self-consistently modeling 3D fishnet metamaterials with embedded gain materials, demonstrating loss compensation and enhanced optical properties.

Contribution

It presents a novel self-consistent computational approach to model fishnet metamaterials with gain, enabling loss compensation and improved effective parameters.

Findings

Loss can be compensated by gain material inside the fishnet structure.

The pump rate for loss compensation is lower than bulk gain.

The figure of merit increases significantly with pump rate.

Abstract

We present a computational approach, allowing for a self-consistent treatment of three-dimensional (3D) fishnet metamaterial coupled to a gain material incorporated into the nanostructure. We show numerically that one can compensate the losses by incorporating gain material inside the fishnet structure. The pump rate needed to compensate the loss is much smaller than the bulk gain and the figure of merit (FOM = |Re(n)/Im(n)|) increases dramatically with the pump rate. Transmission, reflection, and absorption data, as well as the retrieved effective parameters, are presented for the fishnet structure with and without gain material. Kramers-Kronig relations of the effective parameters are in excellent agreement with the retrieved results with gain.