All-plasmonic modulation via stimulated emission of copropagating surface plasmon polaritons on a substrate with gain.

Alexey V Krasavin, Thanh Phong Vo, Wayne Dickson, Pádraig M Bolger, Anatoly V Zayats

Index: Nano Lett. 11(6) , 2231-5, (2011)

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Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate suppressed absorption and stimulated emission of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) leading to all-plasmonic modulation of an SPP signal propagating at the interface between a metal and a gain medium; these observations are supported by the developed theory. The use of copropagating signal and control waves can provide more than 10 times more efficient SPP stimulated emission compared to out-of-plane pumping and opens up the possibility to realize integratable plasmonic components for active nanophotonic circuitry.