Hybrid metal/semiconductor lasers based on confined Tamm plasmons

摘要

Tamm plasmons are interface modes formed at the boundary between a metallic layer and a dielectric Bragg mirror. They present advantages associated both to surface plasmons and to microcavities photonic modes. One of their striking properties is that they can be spatially confined by structuring only the metallic part of the structure, thus reducing the size of the mode and allowing various geometries without altering the optical properties of the active layer. These modes are very good candidates for optimizing the emission properties of semiconductor nanostructures. In particular, due to the relatively low damping and the versatility of the Tamm geometries, they open new perspective for the development of hybrid metal/semiconductor lasers. In this paper, we will show that a laser effect can be achieved in a bidimensional Tamm structure under pulsed optical pumping. We will also demonstrate that the mode can be spatially confined, and that this results in a reduction of the pump power at threshold.