Design of plasmonic cavities

In this review paper, we introduce the unique optical properties of high-quality, fully three-dimensional, subwavelength-scale plasmonic cavities. Surface-plasmon-polaritons excited at dielectric-metal interfaces are strongly confined in such cavities. The field profiles of plasmonic modes, their temperature-dependent quality factors, and subwavelength mode volumes are calculated and analyzed systematically using three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations. Reasonable design of high-quality plasmonic cavities opens an opportunity to demonstrate novel plasmonic lasers enabling the further miniaturization of coherent light sources for use in ultra-compact photonic integrated circuits.