Active Enhancement of Slow Light Based on Plasmon-Induced Transparency with Gain Materials

• Published in: Materials Vol. 11; no. 6; p. 941
• Main Authors: Zhang, Zhaojian, Yang, Junbo, He, Xin, Han, Yunxin, Zhang, Jingjing, Huang, Jie, Chen, Dingbo, Xu, Siyu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI 03.06.2018; MDPI AG
• Subjects: gain material; metal-dielectric-metal; plasmon-induced transparency; gain material; metal-dielectric-metal; plasmon-induced transparency
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma11060941

As a plasmonic analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) has drawn more attention due to its potential of realizing on-chip sensing, slow light and nonlinear effect enhancement. However, the performance of a plasmonic system is always limited by the metal ohmic loss. Here, we numerically report a PIT system with gain materials based on plasmonic metal-insulator-metal waveguide. The corresponding phenomenon can be theoretically analyzed by coupled mode theory (CMT). After filling gain material into a disk cavity, the system intrinsic loss can be compensated by external pump beam, and the PIT can be greatly fueled to achieve a dramatic enhancement of slow light performance. Finally, a double-channel enhanced slow light is introduced by adding a second gain disk cavity. This work paves way for a potential new high-performance slow light device, which can have significant applications for high-compact plasmonic circuits and optical communication.