Towards plasmonic lasers for optical interconnects

A plasmonic laser structure coupled to a dielectric waveguide is proposed and investigated by rigorous simulations. Modal characteristics, such as propagation loss and confinement factor were obtained for a wavelength of 1.55 µm. In addition, FDTD (Finite-Difference Time-Domain) simulations were used to calculate the reflectivity from the end facets of the laser structure and also to calculate the coupling between the laser and a dielectric waveguide. Simulations show that a threshold gain of 1796 cm-1 is required to compensate the total loss in a 200 nm wide and 50 µm long laser, which can be achievable at room temperature