Abstract

The influences of the position-related spontaneous emission properties of gain media on gain and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise characteristics of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) amplification are investigated with rate-equation theory in this paper. It is found that both the spontaneous emission rate and the probability of spontaneous emission into the SPP mode of the gain media in an SPP waveguide are position related. Based on this, a rate-equation model considering those spontaneous emission properties is presented. With this model, the influences of the position-related spontaneous emission properties on the gain and ASE noise characteristics of a single-mode dielectric-loaded SPP amplifier are discussed. The results show that the spontaneous emission rate of gain media is enhanced near the metal interface and the probability of spontaneous emission into the SPP mode decreases near both the metal and air interfaces of the amplifier. This gives rise to reduced gain and low ASE output power. Moreover, the noise property of the amplifier may be improved because of the great decrease in the output ASE power.

© 2015 Optical Society of America

Theory of noise in high-gain surface plasmon-polariton amplifiers incorporating dipolar gain media

Israel De Leon and Pierre Berini
Opt. Express 19(21) 20506-20517 (2011)

Analysis and simulation of nonlinearity and effects of spontaneous emission in Schottky–junction–based plasmonic amplifiers

Abdolber Mallah Livani and Hassan Kaatuzian
Appl. Opt. 54(19) 6103-6110 (2015)

Amplification of surface plasmon polaritons in nonlinear medium with full saturation susceptibility model

Zahra Adelpour, Ayaz Ghorbani, and Vahid Ahmadi
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 31(7) 1672-1675 (2014)

Model for describing plasmon-enhanced lasers that combines rate equations with finite-difference time-domain

Montacer Dridi and George C. Schatz
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 30(11) 2791-2797 (2013)

Optical gain, spontaneous and stimulated emission of surface plasmon polaritons in confined plasmonic waveguide

G. Colas des Francs, P. Bramant, J. Grandidier, A. Bouhelier, J.-C. Weeber, and A. Dereux
Opt. Express 18(16) 16327-16334 (2010)