Control and Dynamic Competition of Bright and Dark Lasing States in   Active Nanoplasmonic Metamaterials
  Active nanoplasmonic metamaterials support bright and dark modes that compete for gain. Using a Maxwell-Bloch approach incorporating Langevin noise we study the lasing dynamics in an active nano-fishnet structure. We report that lasing of the bright negative-index mode is possible if the higher-Q dark mode is discriminated by gain, spatially or spectrally. The nonlinear competition during the transient phase is followed by steady-state emission where bright and dark modes can coexist. We analyze the influence of pump intensity and polarization and explore methods for mode control. 
Sebastian Wuestner, Joachim M. Hamm, Andreas Pusch, Fabian Renn,   Kosmas L. Tsakmakidis, and Ortwin Hess
physics.optics cond-mat.mes-hall cond-mat.mtrl-sci physics.comp-ph