Binary metal and semiconductor quantum dot metamaterials with negative optical dielectric constant and compensated loss for small volume waveguides, modulators and switches

We study numerically and analytically a binary mixture of quantum dots exhibiting gain and loss. For a mixture of gain quantum dots and silver nanoparticles, we find conditions when the composite shows negative dielectric constant operation and lossless operation. The composites of this kind may be used for dense integration of photonic components as well as modulation and switching in optical interconnect systems.