Plasmonic Nanolasers Enhanced by Hybrid Graphene–Insulator–Metal Structures

Graphene is a two-dimensional (2D) structure that creates a linear relationship between energy and momentum that not only forms massless Dirac fermions with extremely high group velocity but also exhibits a broadband transmission from 300 to 2500 nm that can be applied to many optoelectronic applications, such as solar cells, light-emitting devices, touchscreens, ultrafast photodetectors, and lasers. Although the plasmonic resonance of graphene occurs in the terahertz band, graphene can be combined with a noble metal to provide a versatile platform for supporting surface plasmon waves. In this study, we propose a hybrid graphene–insulator–metal (GIM) structure that can modulate the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) dispersion characteristics and thus influence the performance of plasmonic nanolasers. Compared with values obtained when graphene is not used on an Al template, the propagation length of SPP waves can be increased 2-fold, and the threshold of nanolasers is reduced by 50% when graphene is incorporated on the template. The GIM structure can be further applied in the future to realize electrical control or electrical injection of plasmonic devices through graphene.