Doped Silicon Quantum Dots as Sources of Coherent Surface Plasmons

TL;DR

This paper proposes using doped Silicon Quantum Dots as coherent surface plasmon sources (SPASER), analyzing conditions for spasing, and designing a device with potential applications in mid-infrared and coherent SPP generation.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework for spasing in doped SiQDs, deriving design conditions and proposing a novel array-based device with graphene coupling.

Findings

Spasing occurs when the Quality factor exceeds a mode-dependent threshold.

Critical radius for spasing depends on mode index and doping parameters.

A feasible mid-infrared SPASER design is demonstrated.

Abstract

In the present work, we propose using doped Silicon Quantum Dot (SiQD) as a source of coherent surface plasmons (SPASER). The possibility of spasing in single SiQD is investigated theoretically utilizing full quantum mechanical treatment. We show that spasing can take place in doped SiQDs whenever Quality factor of a plasmon mode exceeds some minimum value. The minimum value depends on size and doping concentration of SiQDs. It can be used to design an optimum structure as SPASER in silicon technologies. The condition on Quality factor is translated to a condition for radius and it is shown that for a given Localized Surface Plasmon (LSP) mode, the radius should be less than some critical value. This value only depends on mode index. The required relations for design purposes are derived and, as an example of feasibility of the approach, a SPASER is designed for mid infrared. Moreover, we propose a more applicable device by arranging an array of doped SiQDs on top of a graphene layer. Coupling the Surface Plasmon Polariton (SPP) modes of graphene with LSP modes of SiQDs causes outcoupling of an intense ultra narrow beam of coherent SPPs to be used in real probable applications.