Random lasing in micron-sized individual supraparticles.

Self-assembled fluorescent particles have shown promise as a potential structure for random lasers. However, obtaining micron-sized random lasers made with fluorescent particles remains a challenge. Theoretically, achieving micron-sized random lasers could be possible by assembling supraparticles composed of colloidal particles. Despite extensive research on supraparticles, the generation of random lasers from this structure is rarely reported. In this study, we introduce a rapid and efficient method for producing supraparticles from fluorescent particles. The resulting supraparticles exhibit diameters ranging from 50 to 150 µm with particles well-connected and uniformly distributed throughout their structure. Under optical excitation, supraparticles with a diameter larger than 80 µm demonstrate lasing emission with a threshold of approximately 77 µJ·mm-2. Larger supraparticles exhibit a distinct redshift in lasing wavelength compared to the smaller ones. Specifically, the central peak lasing wavelength shows a shift of about 7.5 nm as the supraparticle diameter increases from 80 to 150 µm.

Sensitivity and spectral control of network lasers.

Recently, random lasing in complex networks has shown efficient lasing over more than 50 localised modes, promoted by multiple scattering over the underlying graph. If controlled, these network lasers can lead to fast-switching multifunctional light sources with synthesised spectrum. Here, we observe both in experiment and theory high sensitivity of the network laser spectrum to the spatial shape of the pump profile, with some modes for example increasing in intensity by 280% when switching off 7% of the pump beam. We solve the nonlinear equations within the steady state ab-initio laser theory (SALT) approximation over a graph and we show selective lasing of around 90% of the strongest intensity modes, effectively programming the spectrum of the lasing networks. In our experiments with polymer networks, this high sensitivity enables control of the lasing spectrum through non-uniform pump patterns. We propose the underlying complexity of the network modes as the key element behind efficient spectral control opening the way for the development of optical devices with wide impact for on-chip photonics for communication, sensing, and computation.

Flexible and tensile microporous polymer fibers for wavelength-tunable random lasing.

Polymer micro-/nanofibers, due to their low-cost and mechanical flexibility, are attractive building blocks for developing lightweight and flexible optical circuits. They are also versatile photonic materials for making various optical resonators and lasers, such as microrings, networks and random lasers. In particular, for random lasing architectures, the demonstrations to-date have mainly relied on fiber bundles whose properties are hard to tune post-fabrication. Here, we demonstrate the successful implementation of an inverted photonic glass structure with monodisperse pores of 1.28 µm into polymer fibers with diameter ranging from 10 to 60 µm. By doping organic dye molecules into this structure, individual fibers can sustain random lasing under optical pulse excitation. The dependence of lasing characteristics, including lasing spectrum and lasing threshold on fiber diameter are investigated. It is found that the lasing emission red-shifts and the threshold decreases with increasing fiber diameter. Furthermore, owing to the mechanical flexibility, the lasing properties can be dynamically changed upon stretching, leading to a wavelength-tunability of 5.5 nm. Our work provides a novel architecture for random lasers which has the potential for lasing tunability and optical sensing.

Highly Strained III-V-V Coaxial Nanowire Quantum Wells with Strong Carrier Confinement.

Coaxial quantum wells (QWs) are ideal candidates for nanowire (NW) lasers, providing strong carrier confinement and allowing close matching of the cavity mode and gain medium. We report a detailed structural and optical study and the observation of lasing for a mixed group-V GaAsP NW with GaAs QWs. This system offers a number of potential advantages in comparison to previously studied common group-V structures ( e. g., AlGaAs/GaAs) including highly strained binary GaAs QWs, the absence of a lower band gap core region, and deep carrier potential wells. Despite the large lattice mismatch (∼1.7%), it is possible to grow defect-free GaAs coaxial QWs with high optical quality. The large band gap difference results in strong carrier confinement, and the ability to apply a high degree of compressive strain to the GaAs QWs is also expected to be beneficial for laser performance. For a non-fully optimized structure containing three QWs, we achieve low-temperature lasing with a low external (internal) threshold of 20 (0.9) µJ/cm2/pulse. In addition, a very narrow lasing line width of ∼0.15 nm is observed. These results extend the NW laser structure to coaxial III-V-V QWs, which are highly suitable as the platform for NW emitters.

A nanophotonic laser on a graph.

Conventional nanophotonic schemes minimise multiple scattering to realise a miniaturised version of beam-splitters, interferometers and optical cavities for light propagation and lasing. Here instead, we introduce a nanophotonic network built from multiple paths and interference, to control and enhance light-matter interaction via light localisation. The network is built from a mesh of subwavelength waveguides, and can sustain localised modes and mirror-less light trapping stemming from interference over hundreds of nodes. With optical gain, these modes can easily lase, reaching ~100 pm linewidths. We introduce a graph solution to the Maxwell's equation which describes light on the network, and predicts lasing action. In this framework, the network optical modes can be designed via the network connectivity and topology, and lasing can be tailored and enhanced by the network shape. Nanophotonic networks pave the way for new laser device architectures, which can be used for sensitive biosensing and on-chip optical information processing.

Toward electrically driven semiconductor nanowire lasers.

Semiconductor nanowire (NW) lasers are highly promising for making new-generation coherent light sources with the advantages of ultra-small size, high efficiency, easy integration and low cost. Over the past 15 years, this area of research has been developing rapidly, with extensive reports of optically pumped lasing in various inorganic and organic semiconductor NWs. Motivated by these developments, substantial efforts are being made to make NW lasers electrically pumped, which is necessary for their practical implementation. In this review, we first categorize NW lasers according to their lasing wavelength and wavelength tunability. Then, we summarize the methods used for achieving single-mode lasing in NWs. After that, we review reports on lasing threshold reduction and the realization of electrically pumped NW lasers. Finally, we offer our perspective on future improvements and trends.

Optical Study of p-Doping in GaAs Nanowires for Low-Threshold and High-Yield Lasing.

Semiconductor nanowires suffer from significant non-radiative surface recombination; however, heavy p-type doping has proven to be a viable option to increase the radiative recombination rate and, hence, quantum efficiency of emission, allowing the demonstration of room-temperature lasing. Using a large-scale optical technique, we have studied Zn-doped GaAs nanowires to understand and quantify the effect of doping on growth and lasing properties. We measure the non-radiative recombination rate ( knr) to be (0.14 ± 0.04) ps-1 by modeling the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) as a function of doping level. By applying a correlative method, we identify doping and nanowire length as key controllable parameters determining lasing behavior, with reliable room-temperature lasing occurring for p ≳ 3 × 1018 cm-3 and lengths of ≳4 µm. We report a best-in-class core-only near-infrared nanowire lasing threshold of ∼10 µJ cm-2, and using a data-led filtering step, we present a method to simply identify subsets of nanowires with over 90% lasing yield.

Large-Scale Statistics for Threshold Optimization of Optically Pumped Nanowire Lasers.

Single nanowire lasers based on bottom-up III-V materials have been shown to exhibit room-temperature near-infrared lasing, making them highly promising for use as nanoscale, silicon-integrable, and coherent light sources. While lasing behavior is reproducible, small variations in growth conditions across a substrate arising from the use of bottom-up growth techniques can introduce interwire disorder, either through geometric or material inhomogeneity. Nanolasers critically depend on both high material quality and tight dimensional tolerances, and as such, lasing threshold is both sensitive to and a sensitive probe of such inhomogeneity. We present an all-optical characterization technique coupled to statistical analysis to correlate geometrical and material parameters with lasing threshold. For these multiple-quantum-well nanolasers, it is found that low threshold is closely linked to longer lasing wavelength caused by losses in the core, providing a route to optimized future low-threshold devices. A best-in-group room temperature lasing threshold of ∼43 µJ cm-2 under pulsed excitation was found, and overall device yields in excess of 50% are measured, demonstrating a promising future for the nanolaser architecture.

Design and Room-Temperature Operation of GaAs/AlGaAs Multiple Quantum Well Nanowire Lasers.

We present the design and room-temperature lasing characteristics of single nanowires containing coaxial GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well (MQW) active regions. The TE01 mode, which has a doughnut-shaped intensity profile and is polarized predominantly in-plane to the MQWs, is predicted to lase in these nanowire heterostructures and is thus chosen for the cavity design. Through gain and loss calculations, we determine the nanowire dimensions required to minimize loss for the TE01 mode and determine the optimal thickness and number of QWs for minimizing the threshold sheet carrier density. In particular, we show that there is a limit to the minimum and maximum number of QWs that are required for room-temperature lasing. Based on our design, we grew nanowires of a suitable diameter containing eight uniform coaxial GaAs/AlGaAs MQWs. Lasing was observed at room temperature from optically pumped single nanowires and was verified to be from TE01 mode by polarization measurements. The GaAs MQW nanowire lasers have a threshold fluence that is a factor of 2 lower than that previously demonstrated for room-temperature GaAs nanowire lasers.

Doping-enhanced radiative efficiency enables lasing in unpassivated GaAs nanowires.

Nanolasers hold promise for applications including integrated photonics, on-chip optical interconnects and optical sensing. Key to the realization of current cavity designs is the use of nanomaterials combining high gain with high radiative efficiency. Until now, efforts to enhance the performance of semiconductor nanomaterials have focused on reducing the rate of non-radiative recombination through improvements to material quality and complex passivation schemes. Here we employ controlled impurity doping to increase the rate of radiative recombination. This unique approach enables us to improve the radiative efficiency of unpassivated GaAs nanowires by a factor of several hundred times while also increasing differential gain and reducing the transparency carrier density. In this way, we demonstrate lasing from a nanomaterial that combines high radiative efficiency with a picosecond carrier lifetime ready for high speed applications.

Mode Profiling of Semiconductor Nanowire Lasers.

We experimentally determine the lasing mode(s) in optically pumped semiconductor nanowire lasers. The spatially resolved and angle-resolved far-field emission profiles of single InP nanowire lasers lying horizontally on a SiO2 substrate are characterized in a microphotoluminescence (µ-PL) setup. The experimentally obtained polarization dependent far-field profiles match very well with numerical simulations and enable unambiguous identification of the lasing mode(s). This technique can be applied to characterize lasing modes in other type of nanolasers that are integrated on a substrate in either vertical or horizontal configurations.

An order of magnitude increase in the quantum efficiency of (Al)GaAs nanowires using hybrid photonic-plasmonic modes.

We demonstrate 900% relative enhancement in the quantum efficiency (QE) of surface passivated GaAs nanowires by coupling them to resonant nanocavities that support hybrid photonic-plasmonic modes. This nonconventional approach to increase the QE of GaAs nanowires results in QE enhancement over the entire nanowire volume and is not limited to the near-field of the plasmonic structure. Our cavity design enables spatially and spectrally tunable resonant modes and efficient in- and out-coupling of light from the nanowires. Furthermore, this approach is not fabrication intensive; it is scalable and can be adapted to enhance the QE of a wide range of low QE semiconductor nanostructures.

Selective-area epitaxy of pure wurtzite InP nanowires: high quantum efficiency and room-temperature lasing.

We report the growth of stacking-fault-free and taper-free wurtzite InP nanowires with diameters ranging from 80 to 600 nm using selective-area metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy and experimentally determine a quantum efficiency of ∼50%, which is on par with InP epilayers. We also demonstrate room-temperature, photonic mode lasing from these nanowires. Their excellent structural and optical quality opens up new possibilities for both fundamental quantum optics and optoelectronic devices.

Design considerations for semiconductor nanowire-plasmonic nanoparticle coupled systems for high quantum efficiency nanowires.

The optimal geometries for reducing the radiative recombination lifetime and thus enhancing the quantum efficiency of III-V semiconductor nanowires by coupling them to plasmonic nanoparticles are established. The quantum efficiency enhancement factor due to coupling to plasmonic nanoparticles reduces as the initial quality of the nanowire increases. Significant quantum efficiency enhancement is observed for semiconductors only within about 15 nm from the nanoparticle. It is also identified that the modes responsible for resonant enhancement in the quantum efficiency of an emitter in the nanowire are geometric resonances of surface plasmon polariton modes supported at the nanowire/nanoparticle interface.

Polarization tunable, multicolor emission from core-shell photonic III-V semiconductor nanowires.

We demonstrate luminescence from both the core and the shell of III-V semiconductor photonic nanowires by coupling them to plasmonic silver nanoparticles. This demonstration paves the way for increasing the quantum efficiency of large surface area nanowire light emitters. The relative emission intensity from the core and the shell is tuned by varying the polarization of the excitation source since their polarization response can be independently controlled. Independent control on emission wavelength and polarization dependence of emission from core-shell nanowire heterostructures opens up opportunities that have not yet been imagined for nanoscale polarization sensitive, wavelength-selective, or multicolor photonic devices based on single nanowires or nanowire arrays.