Fundamental Limitations to Gain Enhancement in Periodic Media and Waveguides

Jure Grgić, Johan Raunkjær Ott, Fengwen Wang, Ole Sigmund, Antti-Pekka Jauho, Jesper Mørk, and N. Asger Mortensen
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 183903 – Published 4 May 2012
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Abstract

A common strategy to compensate for losses in optical nanostructures is to add gain material in the system. By exploiting slow-light effects it is expected that the gain may be enhanced beyond its bulk value. Here we show that this route cannot be followed uncritically: inclusion of gain inevitably modifies the underlying dispersion law, and thereby may degrade the slow-light properties underlying the device operation and the anticipated gain enhancement itself. This degradation is generic; we demonstrate it for three different systems of current interest (coupled-resonator optical waveguides, Bragg stacks, and photonic crystal waveguides). Nevertheless, a small amount of added gain may be beneficial.

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  • Received 21 November 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.183903

© 2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Jure Grgić1, Johan Raunkjær Ott1, Fengwen Wang2, Ole Sigmund2, Antti-Pekka Jauho3, Jesper Mørk1, and N. Asger Mortensen1,*

  • 1DTU Fotonik, Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
  • 2DTU Mekanik, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Solid Mechanics, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
  • 3DTU Nanotech, Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

  • *asger@mailaps.org

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Issue

Vol. 108, Iss. 18 — 4 May 2012

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