Proposal for Compact Solid-State III-V Single-Plasmon Sources

• Main Authors: C. H. Gan, J. P. Hugonin, P. Lalanne
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society 2012-05-01
• Series: Physical Review X
• Online Access: http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.2.021008

We propose a compact single-plasmon source operating at near-infrared wavelengths on an integrated III-V semiconductor platform, with a thin ridge waveguide serving as the plasmon channel. By attaching an ultrasmall cavity to the channel, it is shown that both the plasmon-generation efficiency (β) and the spontaneous decay rate into the channel can be significantly enhanced. An analytical model derived with the Lorentz reciprocity theorem captures the main physics involved in the design of the source and yields results in good agreement with fully vectorial simulations of the device. At resonance, it is predicted that the ultrasmall cavity increases the β factor by 70% and boosts the spontaneous decay rate by a factor of 20. The proposed design could pave the way toward integrated and scalable plasmonic quantum networks. Comparison of the present design with other fully dielectric competing approaches is addressed.