Toroidal lasing spaser

Abstract

Toroidal shapes are often found in bio-molecules, viruses, proteins and fats, but only recently it was proved experimentally that toroidal structures can support exotic high-frequency electromagnetic excitations that are neither electric or magnetic multipoles. Such excitations, known as toroidal moments, could be playing an important role in enhancing inter-molecular interaction and energy transfer due to its higher electromagnetic energy confinement and weaker coupling to free space. Using a model toroidal metamaterial system, we show that coupling optical gain medium with high Q-factor toroidal resonance mode can enhance the single pass amplification to up to 65 dB. This offers an opportunity of creating the “toroidal” lasing spaser, a source of coherent optical radiation that is fueled by toroidal plasmonic oscillations in the nanostructure.