Abstract

We propose a scheme to realize stable linear and nonlinear propagation of symmetric and antisymmetric surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) solitons by doping ladder-type three-level quantum emitters into the middle layer of a metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) waveguide. In linear propagation regime, we show that both symmetric and antisymmetric SPPs can acquire a gain from electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effect with an incoherent pumping. The EIT can be used not only to completely compensate the Ohmic loss in the metal but also to acquire a subluminal group velocity for the SPPs. We also show that in nonlinear propagation regime a huge enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity of the symmetric and antisymmetric SPPs can be obtained but with different incoherent pumping intensities. As a result, gain-assisted (1+1)-dimensional symmetric and antisymmetric subluminal surface polaritonic solitons may be produced based on the strong confinement of electric field in the MDM waveguide. Our study may have promising applications in light information processing and transmission at nanoscale level based on MDM waveguides.

Graphical abstract

中文翻译：

---

非相干抽运的金属-介电-金属波导中的对称和反对称表面等离子体激元孤子

摘要

我们提出了一种通过在金属-电介质-金属（MDM）波导的中间层中掺杂阶梯型三能级量子发射器来实现对称和反对称表面等离激元极化子（SPPs）孤子的稳定线性和非线性传播的方案。在线性传播机制中，我们表明对称和反对称SPP都可以通过非相干泵浦而从电磁感应透明（EIT）效应中获得收益。EIT不仅可以用来完全补偿金属中的欧姆损耗，而且可以用于获得SPP的腔内基团速度。我们还表明，在非线性传播条件下，对称和反对称SPP的Kerr非线性都可以得到极大增强，但是泵浦强度不同。结果是，增益辅助（1 + 1）维对称和反对称腔内表面极化子孤子可以基于MDM波导中电场的强约束而产生。我们的研究可能在基于MDM波导的纳米级光信息处理和传输中具有广阔的应用前景。

图形概要