Plasmonic Superradiance of Two Emitters Near Metal Nanorod

TL;DR

This paper predicts that two quantum emitters near a gold nanorod can exhibit plasmonic superradiance, leading to a significant increase in emission yield, which could impact nanolaser thresholds and plasmonic waveguide excitation.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum mechanical model showing plasmonic superradiance with two emitters near a nanorod, predicting up to 15% emission enhancement due to synchronized emission.

Findings

Up to 15% increase in emission yield for two emitters.

Superradiance effect persists despite dissipation and dephasing.

Potential applications in nanolasers and plasmonic waveguides.

Abstract

Quantum emitters, such as q-dots and dye molecules, in the immediate vicinity of plasmonic nanostructures, resonantly excite surface plasmon-polaritons (SPPs) under incoherent pump. The efficiency in the excitation of SPPs increases as the number of the emitters, because the SPP field synchronizes emission of the coupled emitters, in analogy with the superadiance (SR) of coupled emitters in free space. Using fully quantum mechanical model for two emitters coupled to a single gold nanorod, we predict up to 15% increase in the emission yield of single emitter compared to only one emitter coupled to the nanorod due to plasmonic SR. (XW: I use emission yield because the quantum efficiency is one for emitters in free space and there is no room for enhancement). Such emission enhancement is stationary and should be observable even with strong dissipation and dephasing under incoherent pump. Solid-state quantum emitters with blinking behaviors may be utilized to demonstrate such plasmonic SR emission enhancement. Plasmonic SR may find implications in the excitation of non-radiative modes in plasmonic waveguides; and lowing threshold of plasmonic nanolasers.