The development of active and passive plasmonic devices is challenging due to the high level of dissipation in normal metals. One possible solution to this problem is using alternative materials. Graphene is a good candidate for plasmonics in the near-infrared region. In this paper, we develop a quantum theory of a graphene plasmon generator. We account for quantum correlations and dissipation effects, thus we are able to describe such regimes of a quantum plasmonic amplifier as a surface plasmon emitting diode and a surface plasmon amplifier using stimulated radiation emission. Switching between these generation types is possible in situ with a variance of the graphene Fermi level. We provide explicit expressions for dissipation and interaction constants through material parameters, and we identify the generation spectrum and the second-order correlation function, which predicts the laser statistics.
A novel type of spaser with the net amplification of surface plasmons (SPs) in a doped graphene nanoribbon is proposed. The plasmons in the THz region can be generated in a doped graphene nanoribbon due to nonradiative excitation by emitters like two level quantum dots located along a graphene nanoribbon. The minimal population inversion per unit area, needed for the net amplification of SPs in a doped graphene nanoribbon, is obtained. The dependence of the minimal population inversion on the surface plasmon wave vector, graphene nanoribbon width, doping, and damping parameters necessary for the amplification of surface plasmons in the armchair graphene nanoribbon is studied.
