A Novel Metal Nanoparticles-Graphene Nanodisks-Quantum Dots Hybrid-System-Based Spaser

• Main Authors: Mariam M. Tohari, Andreas Lyras, Mohamad S. AlSalhi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-02-01
• Series: Nanomaterials
• Subjects: spaser; plasmonic amplifiers; graphene nanodisks; metal nanoparticles; quantum dots cascade emitters
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/10/3/416

Active nanoplasmonics have recently led to the emergence of many promising applications. One of them is the spaser (surface plasmons amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) that has been shown to generate coherent and intense fields of selected surface plasmon modes that are strongly localized in the nanoscale. We propose a novel nanospaser composed of a metal nanoparticles-graphene nanodisks hybrid plasmonic system as its resonator and a quantum dots cascade stack as its gain medium. We derive the plasmonic fields induced by pulsed excitation through the use of the effective medium theory. Based on the density matrix approach and by solving the Lindblad quantum master equation, we analyze the ultrafast dynamics of the spaser associated with coherent amplified plasmonic fields. The intensity of the plasmonic field is significantly affected by the width of the metallic contact and the time duration of the laser pulse used to launch the surface plasmons. The proposed nanospaser shows an extremely low spasing threshold and operates in the mid-infrared region that has received much attention due to its wide biomedical, chemical and telecommunication applications.