Lasing in plasmon-induced transparency nanocavity

We propose a plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) nanocavity for achieving nanoscopic coherent light source. The compact cavity is constructed by a pair of detuned nano-stubs incorporated with four-level gain medium. The PIT response enables the reduction of the coupling loss from cavity to waveguide while keeping the cavity size unchanged, different from the end-facet Fabry-Pérot cavity in which the radiation loss decreases at the cost of size increment. In order to study the lasing behavior of surface plasmon wave in the PIT cavity, the self-consistent finite element method is employed to model the interactions between gain and propagating surface plasmons. The dynamics of the whole lasing process is observed, and the linear output-input relation is obtained for the single mode plasmon lasing. It is demonstrated that smaller stub-pair detuning provides stronger feedback inside the cavity. Consequently, the lasing threshold of pumping rate decreases quadratically with the decreasing of detuning. However, the output-input extraction efficiency will improve when the detuning is not so small. One of the advantages for the proposal is that the lasing output power from the cavity can directly couple towards the metal-dielectric-metal waveguide platform, facilitating the field of integrated plasmonic circuits and molecular-scale coherent light source.