Work

Phase Transition in $\mathcal {PT}$ Symmetric Active Plasmonic Systems

Year: 2015

Type: article

Abstract: Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are coherent electromagnetic surface waves trapped on an insulator-conductor interface. The SPPs decay exponentially along the propagation due to conductor losses, restricting the SPPs propagation length to few microns. Gain materials can be used to counterbalance the aforementioned losses. We provide an exact expression for the gain, in terms of the optical properties of the interface, for which the losses are eliminated. In addition, we show that systems characterized by lossless SPP propagation are related to PT symmetric systems. Furthermore, we derive an analytical critical value of the gain describing a phase transition between lossless and prohibited SPPs propagation. The regime of the aforementioned propagation can be directed by the optical properties of the system under scrutiny. Finally, we perform COMSOL simulations verifying the theoretical findings.

Source: IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics

DOI: 10.1109/jstqe.2015.2490018

Authors: Marios Mattheakis, Thomas Oikonomou, Mario I. Molina, George P. Tsironis

Institutions: Harvard University, University of Crete, Nazarbayev University, University of Chile, National University of Science and Technology

Language: English

Topic: Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research

Subfield: Biomedical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Award: G1360503674