Electrically pumped sub-wavelength metallo-dielectric pedestal pillar lasers

Abstract

Electrically driven subwavelength scale metallo-dielectric pedestal pillar lasers are designed and experimentally demonstrated. The metallo-dielectric cavity significantly enhances the quality factor (Q > 1500) of the wavelength and subwavelength scale lasers and the pedestal structure significantly reduces the threshold gain (< 400 cm(-1)) which can potentially enable laser operation at room temperature. We observed continuous wave lasing in 750 nm gain core radius laser at temperatures between 77 K and 140 K with a threshold current of 50 μA (at 77 K). We also observed lasing from a 355 nm gain core radius laser at temperatures between 77 K and 100 K.

Nanophotonic integrated circuits from nanoresonators grown on silicon

“…However, PICs require optoelectronic devices with electrical control, and electrical contacts greatly perturb these cavity modes, making electrically driven lasing a difficult task. By embedding our nanoresonator structure inside a metaloptic cavity [28][29][30] , we show that nanoresonator produces electrically driven stimulated emission. Although stimulated emission is observed under both continuous wave (CW) and pulsed pumping, full laser oscillation has not yet been achieved.…”

Temperature effects in metal-clad semiconductor nanolasers

“…( ) ℘ is the dipole matrix element, and D(ω 21 ) characterizes the inhomogeneity of the system. The intraband collision time, τ coll , is the average time between carrier-carrier and carrier-phonon collisions, and decreases with increasing temperature [58].…”

“…In the past decade, lasing has been demonstrated in numerous wavelength and sub-wavelength scale structures, including dielectric micro-discs [1][2][3][4], photonic crystals [5][6][7][8][9], nanowires [10,11] and nanorods [12], nano-membranes [13][14][15], micro-pillars [16][17][18], and metal-clad nano-cavities [19][20][21][22][23][24]. While all these devices enable fundamental research of various nanoscale phenomena [25][26][27], the design and analysis of nanolasers have focused almost exclusively on the optical mode, i.e., pure electromagnetic (EM) consideration, usually at 4.5 K, 77 K and room temperature.…”

“…In the case of electrical injection, the dielectric also serves as the electrical insulation layer and the passivation layer. CW operation in this type of nanolaser was later demonstrated at 140 K under electrical pumping [21], and, most recently, at room temperature [22]. We focus our discussion here on metallo-dielectric nanolasers, as a promising avenue toward dense chip-scale integration at room temperature and higher.…”

High-Q resonance modes observed in a metallic nanocavity

“…5 Therefore various kinds of nanolasers, especially metal-coated nanolasers attract high attention in recent years. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Up to now lasing with low threshold, 6,8,13,16 lasing at room temperature, 7,8,10,12,15 and continuous-wave (CW) laser operation 7,12 have been demonstrated. Almost all of them are designed with small sizes of about 1 lm or less three-dimensionally, and therefore the metal-coated nanolasers have extremely small volumes.…”