III-V GaAs based plasmonic lasers (Presentation Recording)

Plasmonics is a potential route to new and improved optical devices. Many predict that sub wavelength optical systems will be essential in the development of future integrated circuits, offering the only viable way of simultaneously increasing speed and reducing power consumption. Realising this potential will be contingent on the ability to exploit plasmonic effects within the framework of the established semiconductor industry and to this end we present III-V (GaAs) based surface plasmon laser platform capable of effective laser light generation in highly focussed regions of space. Our design utilises a suspended slab of GaAs with a metallic slot printed on top. Here, hybridisation between the plasmonic mode of the slot and the photonic mode of the slab leads to the formation of a mode with confinement and loss that can be adjusted through variation of the slot width alone. As in previous designs the use of a hybrid mode provides strong confinement with relatively low losses, however the ability to print the metal slot removes the randomness associated with device fabrication and the requirement for etching that can deteriorate the semiconductor’s properties. The deterministic fabrication process and the use of bulk GaAs for gain make the device prime for practical implementation.