Integration of Nanoscale Light Emitters and Hyperbolic Metamaterials: An Efficient Platform for the Enhancement of Random Laser Action

Abstract

Hyperbolic metamaterials have emerged as novel materials with exciting functionalities, especially for optoelectronic devices. Here, we provide the first attempt to integrate hyperbolic metamaterials with light emitting nanostructures, which enables to strongly enhance random laser action with reduced lasing threshold. Interestingly, the differential quantum efficiency can be enhanced by more than four times. The underlying mechanism can be interpreted well based on the fact that the high-k modes excited by hyperbolic metamaterials can greatly increase the possibility of forming close loops decreasing the energy consumption for the propagation of scattered photons in the matrix. In addition, out-coupled propagation of the high-k modes reaches to the far-field without being trapped inside the metamaterials due to the coupling with the random distribution of light emitting nanoparticles also plays an important role. Electromagnetic simulations derived from the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method are executed to support our interpretation. Realizing strong enhancement of laser action assisted by hyperbolic metamaterials provides an attractive, very simple and efficient scheme for the development of high performance optoelectronic devices, including phototransistors, and many other solid state lighting systems. Besides, because of increasing light absorption assisted by hyperbolic metamaterials structure, our approach shown is also useful for the application of highly efficient solar cells.

Hyperbolic Metamaterials and Metasurfaces: Fundamentals and Applications

“…There have been attempts to realize nanolaser using HMM structures based on the emission enhancement mechanism . The broadband Purcell enhancement and more efficient energy transfer from the surface plasmon to the lasing mode due to the large PDOS and nonlocal effect in HMMs pave ways to manipulate the lasing action.…”

“…Compared with other optical metamaterials, like chiral and split ring resonator–based metamaterials, HMMs have advantages of relative ease of fabrication at optical frequencies, broadband nonresonant and 3D bulk responses, and flexible wavelength tunability. As a result, HMMs have attracted widespread interest and become a good multifunctional platform for many exotic applications, such as optical negative refraction and light beam steering, subdiffraction‐limited imaging and nanolithography, spontaneous and thermal emission engineering, ultrasensitive optical, biological, and chemical sensing, omnidirectional and broadband optical absorption …”

Transient and Flexible Hyperbolic Metamaterials on Freeform Surfaces

“…Besides, the cylindrical HMMs nano-antenna structures can enhance the emitted power into free-space for 100-fold 35 . As to the application of stimulated emission ( e.g ., laser), HMMs can also enhance the transition rate of the optical gain media to achieve the lasing action easily and reduce the threshold, which is very useful to serve as a suitable candidate for all-optical communication 36 – 39 . Moreover, it is theoretically suggested that HMMs can play a significant role for invisible cloaking and low-scattering near-field optical microscopes in the visible wavelength 40 .…”

Multi-Band Up-Converted Lasing Behavior in NaYF4:Yb/Er Nanocrystals

“…Recently, random lasers have attracted great interests for researchers because they can be amplified by multiple scatterings in a disorder system [ 19 ]. Random lasing is desired in nanostructures through surface nanoparticle amplification.…”