Modelling lasing in plasmonic nanoparticle arrays

We study lasing in arrays of metallic nanoparticles combined with an active medium of dye molecules. We use a model which reduces the generally complicated spatial and temporal dynamics of electromagnetic fields in the array structure to a single ordinary differential equation for an oscillating dipole. By focusing on the most relevant processes, this approximation allows direct physical insight while reducing the computational effort. We benchmark our model against recent experiments and find satisfactory agreement.