Dye-doped spheres with plasmonic semi-shells: Lasing modes and scattering at realistic gain levels

• Nikita Arnold,
• Boyang Ding,
• Calin Hrelescu and
• Thomas A. Klar

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 974–987, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.110

• ; spaser; Introduction Noble metal nanoparticles are of current interest both in fundamental and applied science because of their localized plasmonic resonances (LPR) in the visible and near infrared range of the optical spectrum. The simplest nanoparticle geometry is spherical, but the spectral position

• plasmons and gain materials finally leads to a self-sustaining laser-like generator called the spaser [31][32][33][34][35][36]. In this contribution, we find that there is a finite range of gain values in which the absorption is overcompensated within a certain wavelength region, but the spaser does not

• self-start yet. The existence of such a finite range has been debated before [37][38][39][40][41]. A true nano-spaser based on localized plasmons should be sub-wavelength confined in all three dimensions (3D). Experimentalists approached such 3D nano-spasers within the last few years [42][43][44][45