Semiconductor active plasmonics

Plasmonics is a research area in nanophotonics attracting increasing interest due to the potential applications in sensing and detecting, sub-wavelength confinement of light, integrated circuits, and many others. In particular, when plasmonic structures such as metal nanostructures or highly doped semiconductor particles are combined with active semiconductor materials and nanostructures, novel exciting physics and applications arise. This special section on semiconductor active plasmonics covers several of the most important and complementary directions in the field. First is the modification of the optical properties of a semiconductor nanostructure due to the close proximity of a metallic film or nanostructure. These arise from the formation hybrid plasmon/exciton states and may lead to enhanced spontaneous emission rates, directional far field emission patterns, strong coupling phenomena, and many more. Second is the realization of sub-wavelength scale nanolasers by coupling a semiconductor gain medium with a plasmonic metallic cavity. Particular emphasis is given on the major technical challenges in the fabrication of these nanolasers, such as device patterning, surface passivation, and metal deposition. While the above topics address mainly active structures and devices operating in the visible or near-infrared wavelength region, in the third, the enhanced THz extinction by periodic arrays of semiconductor particles is discussed. This is based on the build-up of surface plasmon resonances in the doped semiconductor particles which can be resonantly coupled and widely tuned by the carrier density in the semiconductor. We believe these highly diverse aspects give insight into the wide variety of new physics and applications that semiconductor active plasmonics is offering. Finally, we would like to thank the IOP editorial staff, in particular Alice Malhador, for their support, and we would also like to thank the contributors for their efforts and participation in this special section.