Absorption sensor based on graphene plasmon quantum amplifier

Plasmon spectroscopy methods are highly sensitive to the small volumes of material due to subwavelength localization of light increasing light-matter interaction. Recent research has shown a high potential of plasmon quantum generator (spaser) or amplifier (sped) for sensing in the infrared optical region. Trinitrotoluene (TNT) molecules fingerprints are considered as an example. Basing on Lindblad equations, we implement full quantum mechanical theory of graphene plasmon generator to investigate how a small amount of absorbing atoms influences the spectrum of a graphene spaser. We analyze the optimal type of an active medium, the number of active molecules, and the pump level to achieve the highest sensitivity and show that optimized structure is sensitive to dozens of atoms. Our research is useful for the development of near- and mid-IR spectroscopy based on plasmon quantum amplifier.