Gain-loss hyperbolic plasmonic metasurfaces

Nowadays, hyperbolic plasmonics attracts researchers’ attention by its exciting optical properties [1-4]. Hyperbolic metasurfaces (HMTSs) support highly localized low-loss surface plasmon-polaritons (SPPs), providing drastic... [ view full abstract ]

Nowadays, hyperbolic plasmonics attracts researchers’ attention by its exciting optical properties [1-4]. Hyperbolic metasurfaces (HMTSs) support highly localized low-loss surface plasmon-polaritons (SPPs), providing drastic increase of the light-matter interactions near the surface. Moreover, HMTSs allow the very effective manipulation by SPPs varying from routing them towards specific directions within the sheet, dispersion-free propagation (canalization), and to the negative refraction.

The usual realization of HMTSs is constructing the surface which behaves as a dielectric in one direction and as a metal in the orthogonal one. Here, we show analytically the possibility of propagation of surface plasmon-polaritons, which have a hyperbolic isofrequency contour, along an anisotropic metasurface with gain in one direction and loss in the orthogonal one. We also propose the new class of HMTSs based on the gain-loss metasurface consisting of array of lossy slabs in gain matrix.

We discuss a possible practical realization of such a metasurface operating at IR and visible light frequencies. We show that desired regime may be observed for some range of the geometrical parameters for metasurface consisting of cobalt slabs placed into quantum dots-based gain matrix. We also analyze the field structure of these SPPs, which drastically differs from that of conventional SPPs supported by uniform metallic surface. 

The effects proposed here may be useful for numerous plasmonic applications ranging from plasmon manipulation for flatland optics to directive spaser design, while quite non-trivial polarization may lead to some fundamentally new effects for non-linear optical harmonic generation. 

[1] J. S. Gomez-Diaz, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 114: 233901, 2015.

[2] J. S. Gomez-Diaz, et al., Optical Materials Express 5: 2313-2329, 2015.

[3] J. S. Gomez-Diaz, et al., ACS Photonics 3: 2211–2224, 2016.

[4] A. Nemilentsau, et al.,Phys. Rev. Lett. 116: 066804, 2016.