Spaser Made of Graphene and Carbon Nanotubes

Spaser is a nanoscale source of surface plasmons comprising a plasmonic resonator and gain medium to replenish energy losses. Here we propose a carbon-based spaser design in which a graphene nanoflake (GNF) resonator is coupled to a carbon nanotube (CNT) gain element. We theoretically demonstrate that the optically excited CNT can nonradiatively transfer its energy to the localized plasmon modes of the GNF because of the near-field interaction between the modes and the CNT excitons. By calculating the localized fields of the plasmon modes and the matrix elements of the plasmon-exciton interaction, we find the optimal geometric and material parameters of the spaser that yield the highest plasmon generation rate. The results obtained may prove useful in designing robust and ultracompact coherent sources of surface plasmons for plasmonic nanocircuits.