A hybrid plasmonic semiconductor laser

We present a semiconductor-based approach to compensate plasmonic losses. The core idea is to employ an electrically pumped laser diode and to overlap its active region with the evanescent field of a surface plasmon wave. In order to keep the losses at a manageable level, we rely on hybrid waveguide modes stemming from the coupling of a dielectric and a plasmonic mode. The laser device we demonstrate operates—at telecom wavelengths—on such a hybrid plasmonic mode. The device operates by electrical injection at room temperature. The near-field imaging of the laser facet provides evidence of the stimulated emission into the hybrid mode and confirms the prediction of the numerical simulations.