Highly Localized Surface Plasmon Nanolasers via Strong Coupling.

Surface plasmons have robust and strong confinement to the light field which is beneficial for the light-matter interaction. Surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (SPACER) has the potential to be integrated on the semiconductor chip as a compact coherent light source, which can play an important role in further extension of Moore's law. In this study, we demonstrate the localized surface plasmon lasing at room temperature in the communication band using metallic nanoholes as the plasmonic nanocavity and InP nanowires as the gain medium. Optimizing laser performance has been demonstrated by coupling between two metallic nanoholes which adds another degree of freedom for manipulating the lasing properties. Our plasmonic nanolasers exhibit lower power consumption, smaller mode volumes, and higher spontaneous emission coupling factors due to enhanced light-matter interactions, which are very promising in the applications of high-density sensing and photonic integrated circuits.

Separated electrodes for the enhancement of high-speed data transmission in vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser arrays.

In this work, a novel design for the electrodes in a near quasi-single-mode (QSM) vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) array with Zn-diffusion apertures inside is demonstrated to produce an effective improvement in the high-speed data transmission performance. By separating the electrodes in a compact 2×2 coupled VCSEL array into two parts, one for pure dc current injection and the other for large ac signal modulation, a significant enhancement in the high-speed data transmission performance can be observed. Compared with the single electrode reference, which parallels 4 VCSEL units in the array, the demonstrated array with its separated electrode design exhibits greater dampening of electrical-optical (E-O) frequency response and a larger 3-dB E-O bandwidth (19 vs. 15 GHz) under the same amount of total bias current (20 mA). Moreover, this significant improvement in dynamic performance does not come at the cost of any degradation in the static performance in terms of the maximum near QSM optical output power (17 mW @ 20 mA) and the Gaussian-like optical far-field pattern which has a narrow divergence angle (full-width half maximum (FWHM): 10° at 20 mA). The advantages of the separated electrode design lead to a much better quality of 32 Gbit/sec eye-opening as compared to that of the reference device (jitter: 1.5 vs. 2.8 ps) and error-free 32 Gbit/sec transmissions over a 500 m multi-mode fiber has been achieved under a moderate total bias current of 20 mA.

Improvement of output efficiency of p-face up photonic-crystal surface-emitting lasers.

We optimized the p-side emission device configuration of photonic-crystal surface-emitting laser (PCSEL) to facilitate the easier chip process and wafer level testing as well as the feasibility of lasing at shorter wavelength. Typically, in order to obtain uniformly distributed current for larger emission area of PCSELs, laser output is designed through the n-side window due to the low hole mobility and thin p-side cladding layer. However, the substrate as well as the epi-layers have to be isolated before the test of each single die on the wafer, which compromised the advantage of wafer-level test of surface emitters. On the other hand, for lasers with emission photon energy higher than the bandgap energy of GaAs substrate, the power will be entirely attenuated. In this study, the optimized p-side emission by applying the transparent conduction layer on top of the p side contact layer to enhance the current distribution and breaking the symmetry of conventional circle pattern in a unit cell to boost the output efficiency is investigated. Through this approach, a high efficiency p-side up PCSEL platform with lower fabrication cost is developed, which is also applicable for short wavelength PCSELs.

Perovskite random lasers: a tunable coherent light source for emerging applications.

Metal halide perovskites have attracted increasing attention due to their superior optical and electrical characteristics, flexible tunability, and easy fabrication processes. Apart from their unprecedented successes in photovoltaic devices, lasing action is the latest exploitation of the optoelectronic performance of perovskites. Among the substantial body of research on the configuration design and light emission quality of perovskite lasers, the random laser is a very interesting stimulated emission phenomenon with unique optical characteristics. In this review article, we first comprehensively overview the development of perovskite-based optoelectronic devices and then focus our discussion on random lasing performance. After an introduction to the historical development of versatile random lasers and perovskite random lasers, we summarize several synthesis methods and discuss their material configurations and stability in synthesized perovskite materials. Following this, a theoretical approach is provided to explain the random lasing mechanism in metal halide perovskites. Finally, we propose future applications of perovskite random lasers, presenting conclusions as well as future challenges, such as quality stability and toxicity reduction, of perovskite materials with regard to practical applications in this promising field.

Reproducible and Bendable SERS Substrates with Tailored Wettability Using Block Copolymers and Anodic Aluminum Oxide Templates.

Surface properties are essential for substrates exhibiting high sensitivity in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) applications. In this work, novel SERS hybrid substrates using polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) and anodic aluminum oxide templates is presented. The hybrid substrates not only possess hierarchical porous nanostructures but also exhibit superhydrophilic surface properties with the water contact angle ≈0°. Such surfaces play an important role in providing uniform enhanced intensities over large areas (relative standard deviation ≈10%); moreover, these substrates are found to be highly sensitive (limit of detection ≈10-12 m for rhodamine 6G (R6G)). The results show that the hybrid SERS substrates can achieve the simultaneous detection of multicomponent mixtures of different target molecules, such as R6G, crystal violet, and methylene blue. Furthermore, the bending experiments show that about 70% of the SERS intensities are maintained after bending from ≈30° to 150°.

Plasmonic Nanolasers Enhanced by Hybrid Graphene-Insulator-Metal Structures.

Graphene is a two-dimensional (2D) structure that creates a linear relationship between energy and momentum that not only forms massless Dirac fermions with extremely high group velocity but also exhibits a broadband transmission from 300 to 2500 nm that can be applied to many optoelectronic applications, such as solar cells, light-emitting devices, touchscreens, ultrafast photodetectors, and lasers. Although the plasmonic resonance of graphene occurs in the terahertz band, graphene can be combined with a noble metal to provide a versatile platform for supporting surface plasmon waves. In this study, we propose a hybrid graphene-insulator-metal (GIM) structure that can modulate the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) dispersion characteristics and thus influence the performance of plasmonic nanolasers. Compared with values obtained when graphene is not used on an Al template, the propagation length of SPP waves can be increased 2-fold, and the threshold of nanolasers is reduced by 50% when graphene is incorporated on the template. The GIM structure can be further applied in the future to realize electrical control or electrical injection of plasmonic devices through graphene.

Ultracompact Pseudowedge Plasmonic Lasers and Laser Arrays.

Concentrating light at the deep subwavelength scale by utilizing plasmonic effects has been reported in various optoelectronic devices with intriguing phenomena and functionality. Plasmonic waveguides with a planar structure exhibit a two-dimensional degree of freedom for the surface plasmon; the degree of freedom can be further reduced by utilizing metallic nanostructures or nanoparticles for surface plasmon resonance. Reduction leads to different lightwave confinement capabilities, which can be utilized to construct plasmonic nanolaser cavities. However, most theoretical and experimental research efforts have focused on planar surface plasmon polariton (SPP) nanolasers. In this study, we combined nanometallic structures intersecting with ZnO nanowires and realized the first laser emission based on pseudowedge SPP waveguides. Relative to current plasmonic nanolasers, the pseudowedge plasmonic lasers reported in our study exhibit extremely small mode volumes, high group indices, high spontaneous emission factors, and high Purell factors beneficial for the strong interaction between light and matter. Furthermore, we demonstrated that compact plasmonic laser arrays can be constructed, which could benefit integrated plasmonic circuits.

Fabrication and Thermal Insulation Properties of Bamboo-Shaped Polymer Fibers by Selective Solvent Vapor Annealing.

Fibrillar materials have gained much attention recently because of their unique properties and potential applications. Although many methods have been developed to fabricate materials, it remains challenging to prepare fibrillar materials containing multicomponent materials or even with complex structures. Here, a facile strategy is developed to fabricate bamboo-shaped fibers by treating electrospun polymer core-shell fibers with solvent vapor annealing. Electrospun polystyrene (PS)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) core-shell fibers are first prepared by electrospinning PS/PMMA blend solutions via a phase separation process. When the PS/PMMA core-shell fibers are annealed with the vapor of cyclohexane, which swells and delocalizes the PS domains selectively, the fibers transform into bamboo-shaped structures. The bamboo-shaped structures can be further examined by swelling and delocalizing the PMMA domains selectively, revealing the undulated PS structures. The thermal insulation properties of the fibers with bamboo-shaped structures are observed to be enhanced compared with the original polymer core-shell fibers.

Collective Lasing Behavior of Monolithic GaN-InGaN Core-Shell Nanorod Lattice under Room Temperature.

We demonstrated a monolithic GaN-InGaN core-shell nanorod lattice lasing under room temperature. The threshold pumping density was as low as 140 kW/cm2 with a quality factor as high as 1940. The narrow mode spacing between lasing peaks suggested a strong coupling between adjacent whisper gallery modes (WGM), which was confirmed with the far-field patterns. Excitation area dependent photoluminescence revealed that the long-wavelength lasing modes dominated the collective lasing behavior under a large excitation area. The excitation-area-dependent lasing behavior resulted from the prominent optical coupling among rods. According to the optical mode simulations and truncated-rod experiments, we confirmed that the fine-splitting of lasing peaks originated from the coupled supermodes existing in the periodic nanorod lattices. With wavelength-tunable active materials and a wafer-level scalable processing, patterning optically coupled GaN-InGaN core-shell nanorods is a highly practical approach for building various on-chip optical components including emitters and coupled resonator waveguides in visible and ultraviolet spectral range.

UVA light-emitting diode grown on Si substrate with enhanced electron and hole injections.

In this work, III-nitride based ∼370 nm UVA light-emitting diodes (LEDs) grown on Si substrates are demonstrated. We also reveal the impact of the AlN composition in the AlGaN quantum barrier on the carrier injection for the studied LEDs. We find that, by properly increasing the AlN composition, both the electron and hole concentrations in the multiple quantum wells (MQWs) are enhanced. We attribute the increased electron concentration to the better electron confinement within the MQW region when increasing the AlN composition for the AlGaN barrier. The improved hole concentration in the MQW region is ascribed to the reduced hole blocking effect by the p-type electron blocking layer (p-EBL). This is enabled by the reduced density of the polarization-induced positive charges at the AlGaN last quantum barrier (LB)/p-EBL interface, which correspondingly suppresses the hole depletion at the AlGaN LB/p-EBL interface and decreases the valence band barrier height for the p-EBL. As a result, the optical power is improved.

High-Operation-Temperature Plasmonic Nanolasers on Single-Crystalline Aluminum.

The recent development of plasmonics has overcome the optical diffraction limit and fostered the development of several important components including nanolasers, low-operation-power modulators, and high-speed detectors. In particular, the advent of surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) nanolasers has enabled the development of coherent emitters approaching the nanoscale. SPP nanolasers widely adopted metal-insulator-semiconductor structures because the presence of an insulator can prevent large metal loss. However, the insulator is not necessary if permittivity combination of laser structures is properly designed. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a SPP nanolaser with a ZnO nanowire on the as-grown single-crystalline aluminum. The average lasing threshold of this simple structure is 20 MW/cm(2), which is four-times lower than that of structures with additional insulator layers. Furthermore, single-mode laser operation can be sustained at temperatures up to 353 K. Our study represents a major step toward the practical realization of SPP nanolasers.

Localized surface plasmon for enhanced lasing performance in solution-processed perovskites.

A promising method to promote the lasing performance of solution-processed organic-inorganic lead-halide perovskites has been demonstrated. With the adding Ag and PMMA thin films, the threshold excitation power for low-temperature lasing action in perovskites can be greatly reduced by over two orders of magnitude than that acquired in bare perovskite layers, ascribing to the strong exciton-plasmon coupling between the Ag and perovskite films. Also, the PMMA layer can be exploited to prevent the perovskite degradation from the hydrolysis in ambient environment, achieving long-lasting light-emitting performance. The advantages exhibited by the hybrid perovskite configuration would be very promising in making practical laser devices.

GaSb-based mid infrared photonic crystal surface emitting lasers.

We demonstrated for the first time above room temperature (RT) GaSb-based mid-infrared photonic crystal surface emitting lasers (PCSELs). The lasers, under optical pumping, emitted at λ(lasing)~2.3µm, had a temperature insensitive line width of 0.3nm, and a threshold power density (P(th)) ~0.3KW/cm2 at RT. Type-I InGaAsSb quantum wells were used as the active region, and the photonic crystal, a square lattice, was fabricated on the surface to provide optical feedback for laser operation and light coupling for surface emission. The PCSELs were operated at temperatures up to 350K with a small wavelength shift rate of 0.21 nm/K. The PCSELs with different air hole depth were studied. The effect of the etched depth on the laser performance was also investigated using numerical simulation based on the coupled-wave theory. Both the laser wavelength and the threshold power decrease as the depth of the PC becomes larger. The calculated results agree well with the experimental findings.

Suspended GaN-based band-edge type photonic crystal nanobeam cavities.

We demonstrated GaN-based photonic crystal (PC) nanobeam cavities by using the e-beam lithography and the suspended nanobeams were realized by focused-ion beam (FIB) milling. One resonant mode was clearly observed at 411.7 nm at 77K by optical pumping. The quality factor was measured to be to 7.4 × 10(2). Moreover, the degree of polarization value was measured to be 40%. The temperature-dependent characteristics were measured and discussed, which unambiguously demonstrated that the observed resonant peak originated from the band-edge mode of the one-dimensional PC nanobeam.

Numerical analysis on current and optical confinement of III-nitride vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers.

We report on the numerical analysis of the electrical and optical properties of current-injected III-nitride based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with three types of current confinement schemes: the conventional planar-indium tin oxide (ITO) type, the AlN-buried type without ITO, and the hybrid type. The proposed hybrid structure, which combines an ITO layer and an intracavity AlN aperture, exhibits not only uniform current distribution but also enhanced lateral optical confinement. Thus, the hybrid type design shows remarkably better performance including lower threshold current and series resistance compared with the planar-ITO type and the AlN-buried type. Furthermore, the multi-transverse mode lasing behavior induced by strong index guiding of the AlN aperture is suppressed to single transverse mode operation by reducing the aperture size. Such design provides a powerful solution for the high performance III-N based VCSELs and is also viable by using current state of the art processing techniques.

Fabrication and characterization of back-side illuminated InGaN/GaN solar cells with periodic via-holes etching and Bragg mirror processes.

In this study, the design and fabrication schemes of back-side illuminated InGaN/GaN solar cells with periodic via-holes etching and Bragg mirror processes are presented. Compared to typical front-side illuminated solar cells, the improvements of open-circuit voltage (V(oc)) from 1.88 to 1.94 V and short-circuit current density (J(sc)) from 0.84 to 1.02 mA/cm(2) are observed. Most significantly, the back-side illuminated InGaN/GaN solar cells exhibit an extremely high fill factor up to 85.5%, leading to a conversion efficiency of 1.69% from 0.66% of typical front-side illuminated solar cells under air mass 1.5 global illuminations. Moreover, the effects of bottom Bragg mirrors on the photovoltaic characteristics of back-side illuminated solar cells are studied by an advanced simulation program. The results show that the J(sc) could further be improved with a factor of 10% from the original back-side illuminated solar cell by the structure optimization of bottom Bragg mirrors.

Lasing on surface states in vertical-cavity surface-emission lasers.

We report experimental observation of lasing on surface states, in the form of standing waves at the termination of a defect-free photonic crystal on top of vertical-cavity surface-emission lasers. Direct images of lasing modes at the truncated periodic potential, along one side of a square lattice, are demonstrated by collecting near-field radiation patterns, as well as in numerical simulations. Our results provide a step toward realizing surface and edge states in optical cavities.

Asymmetric design of photonic crystal surface-emitting lasers with low-threshold characteristics.

We present AlGaAs-InGaAs multiquantum wells photonic crystal surface-emitting lasers by using the transfer matrix method and coupled wave method to achieve a low-threshold operation. The extremely low-threshold gain is achieved by adopting an asymmetric cladding layer design to enhance both of the vertical optical confinement factors for the quantum wells and photonic crystal (PC). By modifying the composition of the AlGaAs layer to raise the refractive index in the p-type cladding, optical field distribution will obviously be shifted to the p side. Hence, it results in a significant coupling enhancement between the optical mode profile and the PC layer. The optimized value of the vertically optical confinement factor of the PC layer is 13.94%, and the corresponding threshold gain can be as low as 19.45 cm(-1).

Design of low-threshold photonic-crystal surface-emitting lasers with confined gain regions by using selective area intermixing.

Photonic-crystal surface-emitting lasers have many promising properties over traditional semiconductor lasers and are regarded as the next-generation laser sources. However, the minimum achievable lasing threshold of PCSELs is still several times larger than that of VCSELs, and limiting its applications especially if the required power is small. Here, we propose a new design that reduces the gain region in the lateral plane by using selective quantum-well intermixing to reduce the threshold current of PCSELs. By performing theoretical calculations, we confirmed that the threshold current can be lowered by a factor of two to three while keeping the PCSEL's advantage of small divergence angle.

Room-Temperature Gate Voltage Modulation of Plasmonic Nanolasers.

Stable electrical modulation of plasmonic nanolasers is achieved on a hybrid graphene-insulator-metal (GIM) platform at room temperature. To support surface plasmon polariton (SPP) resonance, a zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire is placed on the GIM platform to create a plasmonic cavity with a compact mode volume of 2.6 × 10-2 λ3, and the graphene layer is used as a transparent electrode for electrical modulation. When a gate voltage is applied, the surface electron density of Al varied, which results in the shifting of its plasma frequency and thus affects its SPP dispersion. In particular, this variation strongly changes the internal loss of the SPP mode; thus, the lasing thresholds of the ZnO nanowire plasmonic nanolasers on the GIM platform can be modulated by the gate voltage. This study demonstrates the gate voltage modulation of ZnO nanowire plasmonic nanolasers on a GIM platform at room temperature. These nanolasers can exhibit ultrahigh modulation speed on the order of terahertz. Accordingly, plasmonic nanolasers with gate voltage modulation have high potential for plasmonic circuit applications with high operation speed and versatility.