Generation and quantum control of giant plasmon pulses by transient quantum coherence

Amplified ultrashort laser pulses are useful in many fields of science and engineering. Pushing the frontiers of ultrashort pulse generation will lead to new applications in biomedical imaging, communications and sensing. We propose a new, quantum approach to ultrashort pulse generation using transient quantum coherence which predicts order of magnitude stronger pulses generated with lower input energy than in the steady-state regime, reducing the practical heating limitations. This femtosecond quantum-coherent analog of nanosecond Q-switching is not limited by the pulse duration constraints of the latter, and, in principle, may be used for a variety of lasers including x-ray and plasmon nanolasers. We apply this approach to generation of giant plasmon pulses and achieve quantum control of plasmon relaxation dynamics by varying the drive pulse delay, amplitude and duration. We provide insights into the control mechanisms, and discuss future implementations and applications of this new source of ultrashort nanooptical fields

Quantum-Coherence-Enhanced Surface Plasmon Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

We investigate surface plasmon amplification in a silver nanoparticle coupled to an externally driven three-level gain medium, and show that quantum coherence significantly enhances the generation of surface plasmons. Surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation is achieved in the absence of population inversion on the spasing transition, which reduces the pump requirements. The coherent drive allows us to control the dynamics, and holds promise for quantum control of nanoplasmonic devices.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Quantum plasmonic hot-electron injection in lateral WSe2/MoSe2 heterostructures

Lateral two-dimensional (2D) transitional metal dichalcogenide (TMD) heterostructures have recently attracted a wide attention as promising materials for optoelectronic nanodevices. Due to the nanoscale width of lateral heterojunctions, the study of their optical properties is challenging and requires using subwavelength optical characterization techniques. We investigated the photoresponse of a lateral 2D WSe2/MoSe2 heterostructure using tip-enhanced photoluminescence (TEPL) with nanoscale spatial resolution and with picoscale tip-sample distance dependence. We demonstrate the observation of quantum plasmonic effects in 2D heterostructures on a non-metallic substrate, and we report the nano-optical measurements of the lateral 2D TMD heterojunction width of ~ 150 nm and the charge tunneling distance of ~ 20 pm. Controlling the plasmonic tip location allows for both nano-optical imaging and plasmon-induced hot electron injection into the heterostructure. By adjusting the tip-sample distance, we demonstrated the controllability of the hot-electron injection via the competition of two quantum plasmonic photoluminescence (PL) enhancement and quenching mechanisms. The directional charge transport in the depletion region leads to the increased hot electron injection, enhancing the MoSe2 PL signal. The properties of the directional hot-electron injection in the quantum plasmonic regime make the lateral 2D MoSe2/WSe2 heterostructures promising for quantum nanodevices with tunable photoresponse