Abstract

We investigate a nanolaser structure with a gold nanowire that supports long-range surface plasmon polaritons (LR-SPPs). A high refractive index semiconductor gain medium surrounding the nanowire allows the LR-SPPs to be well bound to the nanowire even for a small radius of $\sim 15\mathrm{nm}$ with sufficiently small attenuation. An outermost gold shield with a radius of 400 nm is introduced to prohibit the mode from radiating out to free space when the modal cutoff-like feedback structure is used to confine the propagating mode longitudinally. Numerical simulations for an optimized structure show that the quality factor and lasing threshold gain of the resonant mode at room temperature are 158 and $1590{\mathrm{cm}}^{-1}$, respectively. We also find that the nanolaser supports another type of plasmonic resonant mode with localized surface plasmons on the nanowire with the outermost gold shield, which possesses a quality factor of 220 and a threshold gain of $950{\mathrm{cm}}^{-1}$. These gain coefficients can be obtained in bulk semiconductors.

© 2013 Optical Society of America

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