Coherent amplification and lasing of weak surface-plasmon polaritons in a negative-index metamaterial with a resonant atomic medium

TL;DR

This paper proposes an inversion-less quantum plasmonic waveguide that uses superradiant emission and phase matching to coherently amplify surface plasmon polaritons, enabling nano-scale laser and quantum photonic device applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel inversion-less scheme for amplifying SPPs using unidirectional superradiance and phase matching in a quantum plasmonic waveguide with a negative index metamaterial.

Findings

Achieved unidirectional superradiant SPP emission.

Demonstrated coherent amplification of SPPs via phase matching.

Proposed a surface plasmon laser and quantum plasmonic transistor.

Abstract

Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) lasing requires population inversion, it is inefficient and possesses poor spectral properties. We develop an inversion-less concept for a quantum plasmonic waveguide that exploits unidirectional superradiant SPP emission of radiation to produce intense coherent surface plasmon beams. Our scheme includes a resonantly driven cold atomic medium in a lossless dielectric situated above an ultra-low loss negative index metamaterial~(NIMM) layer. We propose generating unidirectional superradiant radiation of the plasmonic field within an atomic medium and a NIMM layer interface and achieve amplified SPPs by introducing phase-match between the superradiant SPP wave and coupled laser fields. We also establish a parametric resonance between the weak modulated plasmonic field and the collective oscillations of the atomic ensemble, thereby suppressing decoherence of the stably amplified directional polaritonic mode. Our method incorporates the quantum gain of the atomic medium to obtain sufficient conditions for coherent amplification of superradiant SPP waves, and we explore this method to quantum dynamics of the atomic medium being coupled with the weak polaritonic waves. Our waveguide configuration acts as a surface plasmon laser and quantum plasmonic transistor and opens prospects for designing controllable nano-scale lasers for quantum and nano-photonic applications.