Ten years ago,three teams experimentally demonstrated the first spasers,or plasmonic nanolasers,after the spaser concept was first proposed theoretically in 2003.An overview of the significant progress achieved over t...Ten years ago,three teams experimentally demonstrated the first spasers,or plasmonic nanolasers,after the spaser concept was first proposed theoretically in 2003.An overview of the significant progress achieved over the last 10 years is presented here,together with the original context of and motivations for this research.After a general introduction,we first summarize the fundamental properties of spasers and discuss the major motivations that led to the first demonstrations of spasers and nanolasers.This is followed by an overview of crucial technological progress,including lasing threshold reduction,dynamic modulation,room-temperature operation,electrical injection,the control and improvement of spasers,the array operation of spasers,and selected applications of single-particle spasers.Research prospects are presented in relation to several directions of development,including further miniaturization,the relationship with Bose-Einstein condensation,novel spaser-based interconnects,and other features of spasers and plasmonic lasers that have yet to be realized or challenges that are still to be overcome.展开更多
A surface plasmon(SP)is a fundamental excitation state that exists in metal nanostructures.Over the past several years,the performance of optoelectronic devices has been improved greatly via the SP enhancement effect....A surface plasmon(SP)is a fundamental excitation state that exists in metal nanostructures.Over the past several years,the performance of optoelectronic devices has been improved greatly via the SP enhancement effect.In our previous work,the responsivity of GaN ultraviolet detectors was increased by over 30 times when using Ag nanoparticles.However,the physics of the SP enhancement effect has not been established definitely because of the lack of experimental evidence.To reveal the physical origin of this enhancement,Kelvin probe force microscopy(KPFM)was used to observe the SP-induced surface potential reduction in the vicinity of Ag nanoparticles on a GaN epilayer.Under ultraviolet illumination,the localized field enhancement induced by the SP forces the photogenerated electrons to drift close to the Ag nanoparticles,leading to a reduction of the surface potential around the Ag nanoparticles on the GaN epilayer.For an isolated Ag nanoparticle with a diameter of~200 nm,the distribution of the SP localized field is located within 60 nm of the boundary of the Ag nanoparticle.For a dimer of Ag nanoparticles,the localized field enhancement between the nanoparticles was the strongest.The results presented here provide direct experimental proof of the localized field enhancement.These results not only explain the high performance of GaN detectors observed with the use of Ag nanoparticles but also reveal the physical mechanism of SP enhancement in optoelectronic devices,which will help us further understand and improve the performance of SP-based optoelectronic devices in the future.展开更多
基金financial support from the DARPA/DSO Extreme Optics and Imaging(EXTREME)Program(Award HR00111720032)financial support from AFOSR Grant FA9550-18-1-0002+8 种基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.91950115,11774014,and 61521004)the Beijing Natural Science Foundation(Grant No.Z180011)the National Key R&D Program of China(Grant No.2018YFA0704401)supported by the“UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council”support from the Beijing Innovation Centre for Future Chips at Tsinghua Universityprovided by Grant No.DE-SC0007043 from the Materials Sciences and Engineering Division of the Office of the Basic Energy Sciences,Office of Science,U.S.Department of Energyperformed using support from Grant No.DE-FG02-01ER15213 from the Chemical Sciences,Biosciences and Geosciences Division,Office of Basic Energy Sciences,Office of Science,US Department of EnergyAdditional support for MIS came from NSF EFRI NewLAW Grant EFMA-1741691MURI Grant No.N00014-17-1-2588 from the Office of Naval Research(ONR).
文摘Ten years ago,three teams experimentally demonstrated the first spasers,or plasmonic nanolasers,after the spaser concept was first proposed theoretically in 2003.An overview of the significant progress achieved over the last 10 years is presented here,together with the original context of and motivations for this research.After a general introduction,we first summarize the fundamental properties of spasers and discuss the major motivations that led to the first demonstrations of spasers and nanolasers.This is followed by an overview of crucial technological progress,including lasing threshold reduction,dynamic modulation,room-temperature operation,electrical injection,the control and improvement of spasers,the array operation of spasers,and selected applications of single-particle spasers.Research prospects are presented in relation to several directions of development,including further miniaturization,the relationship with Bose-Einstein condensation,novel spaser-based interconnects,and other features of spasers and plasmonic lasers that have yet to be realized or challenges that are still to be overcome.
基金supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(2016YFB0400101,2016YFB0400900)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.61574142,61322406 and 61274038)+3 种基金the Special Project for Inter-government Collaboration of the State Key Research and Development Program(2016YFE0118400)the Jilin Provincial Science&Technology Department(Grant No.20150519001JH)the CAS Interdisciplinary Innovation Team,and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS(Grant No.2015171),For MIS's workthe support was provided by grant No.DE-FG02-11ER46789 from the Materials Sciences and Engineering Division,Office of the Basic Energy Sciences,Office of Science,U.S.Department of Energy.
文摘A surface plasmon(SP)is a fundamental excitation state that exists in metal nanostructures.Over the past several years,the performance of optoelectronic devices has been improved greatly via the SP enhancement effect.In our previous work,the responsivity of GaN ultraviolet detectors was increased by over 30 times when using Ag nanoparticles.However,the physics of the SP enhancement effect has not been established definitely because of the lack of experimental evidence.To reveal the physical origin of this enhancement,Kelvin probe force microscopy(KPFM)was used to observe the SP-induced surface potential reduction in the vicinity of Ag nanoparticles on a GaN epilayer.Under ultraviolet illumination,the localized field enhancement induced by the SP forces the photogenerated electrons to drift close to the Ag nanoparticles,leading to a reduction of the surface potential around the Ag nanoparticles on the GaN epilayer.For an isolated Ag nanoparticle with a diameter of~200 nm,the distribution of the SP localized field is located within 60 nm of the boundary of the Ag nanoparticle.For a dimer of Ag nanoparticles,the localized field enhancement between the nanoparticles was the strongest.The results presented here provide direct experimental proof of the localized field enhancement.These results not only explain the high performance of GaN detectors observed with the use of Ag nanoparticles but also reveal the physical mechanism of SP enhancement in optoelectronic devices,which will help us further understand and improve the performance of SP-based optoelectronic devices in the future.
