Lasing in metal-insulator-metal sub-wavelength plasmonic waveguidesHill, M.T.; Marell, M.J.H.; Leong, E.S.P.; Smalbrugge, E.; Zhu, Y.C.; Sun, Minghua; Veldhoven, van, P.J.; Geluk, E.J.; Karouta, F.; Oei, Y.S.; Nötzel, R.; Ning, C.Z.; Smit, M.K.

The discovery and continued development of the laser has revolutionized both science and industry, enabling a range of scientific advances. The advent of miniaturized, semiconductor lasers has made this technology ubiquitous and an integral part of everyday life. Exciting research continues with a new focus on nanowire lasers, as they have the potential to revolutionize the field of optoelectronics. Here, we review the latest advancements in nanowire laser development and offer our perspective on future improvements and trends. We discuss fundamental material considerations, which include the latest, most effective materials for nanowire lasers. A discussion of novel cavity designs and amplifications methods is followed by some of the latest work on surface plasmon polariton nanowire lasers. Finally, exciting new reports of electrically pumped nanowire lasers with the potential for integrated optoelectronic applications are described.

Monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have the potential to become efficient optical-gain materials for low-energy-consumption nanolasers with the smallest gain media because of strong excitonic emission. However, until now TMD-based lasing has been realized only at low temperatures. Here we demonstrate for the first time a room-temperature laser operation in the infrared region from a monolayer of molybdenum ditelluride on a silicon photonic-crystal cavity. The observation is enabled by the unique combination of a TMD monolayer with an emission wavelength transparent to silicon, and a high-Q cavity of the silicon nanobeam. The laser is pumped by a continuous-wave excitation, with a threshold density of 6.6 W cm. Its linewidth is as narrow as 0.202 nm with a corresponding Q of 5,603, the largest value reported for a TMD laser. This demonstration establishes TMDs as practical materials for integrated TMD-silicon nanolasers suitable for silicon-based nanophotonic applications in silicon-transparent wavelengths.