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High Q Long-Range Surface Plasmon Polariton Modes in Sub-wavelength Metallic Microdisk Cavity

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Abstract

Metal-capped microdisk cavity supporting surface plasmon polaritons (SPP)-guided whispering gallery mode (WGM) can achieve higher cavity factor Q than traditional microdisk cavity in sub-wavelength dimensions. We have numerically analyzed the limiting factors on Q using finite difference time domain method. The Q of SPP-guided WGM is primarily limited by the loss of metal. A thin metal-sandwiched microdisk cavity supporting long-range surface plasmon polariton mode was proposed to reduce the metal loss. The proposed cavities have been shown to increase cavity Q by more than 15-fold and reduce threshold gain by more than threefold as opposed to traditional microdisk cavities.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Prof. P. C. Ku for discussions and to DARPA/MTO for financial support

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. EECS Department, University of Michigan, 1301 Beal Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2122, USA

    Yi-Hao Chen & L. Jay Guo

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  1. Yi-Hao Chen
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  2. L. Jay Guo
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Correspondence to Yi-Hao Chen.

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Chen, YH., Guo, L.J. High Q Long-Range Surface Plasmon Polariton Modes in Sub-wavelength Metallic Microdisk Cavity. Plasmonics 6, 183–188 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-010-9185-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-010-9185-0

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