A Room Temperature Low-Threshold Ultraviolet Plasmonic Nanolaser
Abstract
Constrained by large ohmic and radiation losses, plasmonic nanolasers operated at visible regime are usually achieved either with a high threshold (100-10,000 MW/sq cm) or at cryogenic temperatures (4-120 K). Particularly, the bending-back effect of surface plasmon (SP) dispersion at high energy makes the SP lasing below 450nm more challenging. Here we demonstrate the first strong room temperature ultraviolet (~370 nm) SP polariton laser with an extremely low threshold (~3.5MW/sq cm). We find that a closed-contact planar semiconductor-insulator-metal interface greatly lessens the scattering loss, and more importantly, efficiently promotes the exciton-SP energy transfer thus furnishes adequate optical gain to compensate the loss. An excitation polarization-dependent lasing action is observed and interpreted with a microscopic energy-transfer process from excitons to SPs. Our work advances the fundamental understanding of hybrid plasmonic waveguide laser and provides a solution of realizing room temperature UV nanolasers for biological applications and information technologies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 23, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA615755
Entities
People
- Charles M. Lieber
- Fang Qian
- Guangyuan Li
- Qihua Xiong
- Qing Zhang
- Tze Chien Sum
- Xinfeng Liu
- Yat Li
Organizations
- Harvard University