External Optical Wave Research Articles

Spaser operation below threshold: autonomous vs. driven spasers.

At the plasmon resonance, high Joule losses in a metal nanoparticle of a spaser result in its low Q-factor. Due to the latter, to achieve the spasing regime, in which the number of coherent plasmons exceeds the number of incoherent plasmons, unsustainably high pump rates may be required. We show that under the condition of loss compensation by a spaser driven by an external optical wave, the number of coherent plasmons increases dramatically, and the quantum noise is suppressed. Since the compensation of losses of the driving wave may occur even near the spasing threshold, the number of coherent plasmons may exceed the number of spontaneously excited plasmons at achievable pump rates.

Switching waves and dissipative structures in a chain of spasers

We have considered the physical mechanism of optical bistability in a spaser in the field of an external optical wave. We have studied the effect of this phenomenon on the dynamics of a 1D chain of coupled spasers. It is shown that such a chain demonstrates the behaviour typical of open nonlinear systems. In particular, for high Joule losses in a spaser, a nonlinear switching autowave propagatesin the chain, thereby evolving the spasers' state from a low population inversion state into a high population inversion state or vice versa. The control parameter that determines the type ofswitching is the amplitude of the external optical wave. For low Joule losses there emerge quasi-periodic dissipative structures whose formation dynamics is of 'self-assembly' nature.

Forced synchronization of spaser by an external optical wave

We demonstrate that when the frequency of the external field differs from the lasing frequency of an autonomous spaser, the spaser exhibits stochastic oscillations at low field intensity. The plasmon oscillations lock to the frequency of the external field only when the field amplitude exceeds a threshold value. We find a region of values of the external field amplitude and the frequency detuning (the Arnold tongue) for which the spaser synchronizes with the external wave.

Dipole response of spaser on an external optical wave

We find the conditions upon the amplitude and frequency of an external electromagnetic field at which the dipole moment of a Bergman-Stockman spaser oscillates in antiphase with the field. For these values of the amplitude and frequency the loss in metal nanoparticles is exactly compensated by the gain. This shows that spasers may be used as inclusions in designing lossless metamaterials.

Nonlinear resonances in the near-field interaction between atoms

It has been shown that nonlinear near-field optical resonances occur in diatomic nanostructures consisting of identical or different two-level atoms in the presence of a radiation field when the dipole-dipole interaction is taken into account. The frequencies of these resonances depend strongly on the intensity of the external optical radiation, on the initial conditions, on the polarization of the external field with respect to the axis of the nanostructure, and on the interatomic distance. The interatomic interaction is taken into account beyond perturbation theory. For this reason, the effective polarizabilities of the atoms of the nanostructure are expressed in terms of the polynomials of both the interatomic distance and the electric field strength of the external optical wave. A “falling tower” effect that is caused by the nonlinear behavior of the local dipole moments of atoms in the nanostructure is predicted.

Optical size resonances in nanostructures

The existence of optical size resonances in atomic nanostructures is proved. The properties of optical size resonances strongly depend on the interatomic distances and on the polarization of an external radiation field. The properties of linear and nonlinear size resonances are considered in the case of two-dimensional nanostructures. The linear optical size resonances are described based on a closed system of equations for dipole oscillators and nonlocal field equations taking into account the dipole-dipole interactions of atoms in the radiation field. Using a stationary solution to these equations, it is demonstrated that two isotropic atoms with definite intrinsic frequencies form an anisotropic system in the radiation field, possessing two or four size resonances depending on whether the component atoms are identical or different. The nanostructure composed of two different atoms possesses two size resonances with positive dispersion and two other resonances with negative dispersion. The frequencies of the size resonances significantly differ from the intrinsic frequencies of isolated atoms entering into the nanostructure. By changing the angle of incidence of the external wave, it is possible to excite various size resonances. The properties of nonlinear optical size resonances excited by an intense radiation field were theoretically and numerically studied using the modified Bloch equations and nonlocal field equations. Dispersion relationships for the nonlinear resonances were derived and the inversion properties of atoms in the nanostructure were studied for various polarizations of the external optical wave.

Narrowing of the emission spectrum of a wide-band laser and locking to one- and two-photon absorption lines of a medium with a light-induced anisotropy

An experimental investigation was made of the spectral and energy characteristics of the radiation emitted by a dye laser with a ring resonator containing an absorbing medium (potassium vapor) in which an anisotropy was induced by a strong external optical wave. Narrowing of the dye output radiation to about 10???2 nm and locking of the emission spectrum to one- and two-photon absorption lines of the potassium vapor were observed. An investigation was made of the locking efficiency for different polarizations of the strong wave.