Plasmon Polariton Bragg Gratings and IR-140 Doped PMMA for Active Bragg Structures

Abstract

This thesis contributes to the realisation of plasmonic lasers based on plasmon polariton Bragg gratings. The scope of this thesis is twofold. In the first section, entitled Passive plasmonic Bragg grating characterization, the results of the testing and characterization of a new design of plasmonic Bragg gratings in the near-infrared are presented. The reflection and transmission responses expected from plasmon-polariton Bragg gratings (PPBGs) are treated theoretically using the transfer matrix method (TMM) and the numerical model is validated experimentally. The experimental setup and procedures are then described in detail. Results show that the near-infrared plasmon polariton Bragg gratings possess a Bragg reflection at a wavelength close to the Bragg wavelength predicted by TMM. In the second section, Gain optimisation and bleaching of IR-140 doped PMMA, an in-depth analysis of the gain medium (IR-140 dye doped poly(methyl methacrylate) better known as PMMA) is performed. This gain medium was selected as a gain layer for active plasmonic gratings and distributed feedback lasers designed by a colleague Ph.D. candidate. The optimized molecular weight of IR-140 in PMMA was found to be 0.9% to obtain a material gain of 81 cm-1.