Study of a sub-wavelength scale plasmonic traveling wave amplifier with electrically pumped multiple quantum wells

We propose a hybrid gap plasmonic traveling wave amplifier (TWA) with electrically pumped multiple quantum wells (MQW). This TWA has deep sub-wavelength mode field scale and works at 1310nm window. For the polarization-independent amplification we design the InGaAlAs tensile-strain MQW. And we analyze this plasmonic TWA’s optical, electrical and thermal characteristics by finite element method. First we get the suitable trade-off point between the affordable mode propagation loss and moderate mode field size by adjusting the gap width and height. Second we find that the narrower the MQW, the higher the MQW local gain. Third, our device has good thermal performance as the plasmonic wave power is less than 5μw. Simulation results suggest that the independent polarization gain appears at 1317nm wavelength. And at this wavelength 3.60/cm mode gain and 161nm mode width are obtained as the 9.39kA/cm^2injection current and 10nm×240nm gap size.