Design of plasmon cavities for solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics applications

Research on photonic cavities with low mode volume and high quality factor garners much attention because of applications ranging from optoelectronics to cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED). The authors propose a cavity based on surface plasmon modes confined by metallic distributed Bragg reflectors. They analyze the structure with finite difference time domain simulations and obtain modes with quality factor of 1000 (including losses from metals at low temperatures), reduced mode volume relative to photonic crystal cavities, Purcell enhancements of hundreds, and even the capability of enabling cavity QED strong coupling. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.