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Cavity-free plasmonic nanolasing enabled by dispersionless stopped light

Author

Listed:
  • Tim Pickering

    (The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK)

  • Joachim M. Hamm

    (The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK)

  • A. Freddie Page

    (The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK)

  • Sebastian Wuestner

    (The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK)

  • Ortwin Hess

    (The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK)

Abstract

When light is brought to a standstill, its interaction with gain media increases dramatically due to a singularity in the density of optical states. Concurrently, stopped light engenders an inherent and cavity-free feedback mechanism, similar in effect to the feedback that has been demonstrated and exploited in large-scale disordered media and random lasers. Here we study the spatial, temporal and spectral signatures of lasing in planar gain-enhanced nanoplasmonic structures at near-infrared frequencies and show that the stopped-light feedback mechanism allows for nanolasing without a cavity. We reveal that in the absence of cavity-induced feedback, the subwavelength lasing mode forms dynamically as a phase-locked superposition of quasi dispersion-free waveguide modes. This mechanism proves remarkably robust against interface roughness and offers a new route towards nanolasing, the experimental realization of ultra-thin surface emitting lasers, and cavity-free active quantum plasmonics.

Suggested Citation

  • Tim Pickering & Joachim M. Hamm & A. Freddie Page & Sebastian Wuestner & Ortwin Hess, 2014. "Cavity-free plasmonic nanolasing enabled by dispersionless stopped light," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms5972
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5972
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