Coupling Plasmonic Metamaterials To Single-Quantum-Well Gain

Abstract

Reducing unfavourable losses in metallic nanostructures by optical gain is currently one of the central topics in plasmonics and metamaterials research. The main prerequisite for this is the coupling between the plasmonic structures and the gain medium. This thesis investigates the coupling mechanism between split-ring resonators and single quantum wells. The focus lies on pump-probe experiments that give evidence for coupling and show this coupling to be dominated by the plasmonic near-fields.