A nanolaser is a laser that has nanoscale dimensions and it refers to a micro-/nano- device which can emit light with light or electric excitation of nanowires or other nanomaterials that serve as resonators. A standard feature of nanolasers includes their light confinement on a scale approaching or suppressing the diffraction limit of light. These tiny lasers can be modulated quickly and, combined with their small footprint, this makes them ideal candidates for on-chip optical computing.
Albert Einstein proposed the stimulated emission in 1916, [1] [2] which contributed to the first demonstration of laser in 1961. [2] [3] From then on, people have been pursuing the miniaturization of lasers for more compact size and less energy consumption all the time. Since people noticed that light has different interactions with matter at the nanoscale in the 1990s, significant progress has been made to achieve the miniaturization of lasers and increase power conversion efficiency. Various types of nanolasers have been developed over the past decades.
In the 1990s, some intriguing designs of microdisk laser [4] [5] and photonic crystal laser [6] [7] were demonstrated to have cavity size or energy volume with micro-/nano- diameters and approach the diffraction limit of light. Photoluminescence behavior of bulk ZnO nanowires was first reported in 2001 by Prof. Peidong Yang from the University of California, Berkeley and it opened the door to the study of nanowire nanolasers. [8] These designs still do not exceed the diffraction limit until the demonstration of plasmonic lasers or spasers.
David J. Bergman and Mark Stockman first proposed amplified surface plasmon waves by stimulated emission and coined the term spaser as "surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation" in 2003. [9] [10] Until 2009, the plasmonic nanolasers or spasers were first achieved experimentally, [11] [12] [13] which were regarded as the smallest nanolasers at that time.
Since roughly 2010, there has been progress in nanolaser technology, and new types of nanolasers have been developed, such as parity-time symmetry laser, bound states in the continuum laser and photonic topological insulators laser. [14]
While sharing many similarities with standard lasers, nanolasers maintain many unique features and differences from the conventional lasers due to the fact that light interacts differently with matter at the nanoscale.
Similar to the conventional lasers, nanolasers also based on stimulated emission which was proposed by Einstein; [1] [2] [3] the main difference between nanolaser and the conventional ones in mechanism is light confinement. The resonator or cavity plays an important role in selecting the light with a certain frequency and the same direction as the most priority amplification and suppressing the other light to achieve the confinement of light. For conventional lasers, Fabry–Pérot cavity with two parallel reflection mirrors is applied. In the case of nanowires, it was shown [15] that the two ends of a nanowire acting as scatters, rather than two parallel mirrors as in the case of Fabry–Pérot cavity, provide the feedback mechanism for nanowire lasers. In this case, light could be confined to a maximum of half its wavelength and such limit is deemed the diffraction limit of light. [16] To approach or decrease the diffraction limit of light, one way is to improve the reflectivity of gain medium, such as using photonic bandgap and nanowires. Another effective way to exceed the diffraction limit is to convert light into surface plasmons in nanostructuralized metals, for amplification in cavity. [14] [17] Recently, new mechanisms of strong light confinement for nanolasers including parity–time symmetry, [18] photonic topological insulators, [19] [20] and bound states in the continuum [21] have been proposed.
Compared with conventional lasers, nanolasers show distinct properties and capabilities. The biggest advantages of nanolasers are their ultra-small physical volumes to improve energy efficiencies, decrease lasing thresholds, and achieve high modulation speeds. [22] [23] [24]
A microdisk laser is a very small laser consisting of a disk with quantum well structures built into it. Its dimensions can exist on the micro-scale or nano-scale. Microdisk lasers use a whispering-gallery mode resonant cavity. [4] [5] [26] The light in cavity travels around the perimeter of the disk and the total internal reflection of photons can result in a strong light confinement and a high quality factor, which means a powerful ability of the microcavity to store the energy of photons coupled into the cavity.
Photonic crystal lasers utilize periodic dielectric structures with different refractive indices; light can be confined with the use of a photonic crystal microcavity. In dielectric materials, there is orderly spatial distribution. When there is a defect in the periodic structure, the two-dimensional or three-dimensional photonic crystal structure will confine the light in the space of the diffractive limit and produce the Fano resonance phenomenon, which means a high quality factor with a strong light confinement for lasers. The fundamental feature of photonic crystals is the photonic bandgap, that is, the light whose frequency falls in the photonic band gap cannot propagate in the crystal structure, thus resulting in a high reflectivity for incident light and a strong confinement of light to a small volume of wavelength scale. [6] [13] [27] The appearance of photonic crystals makes the spontaneous emission in the photon gap completely suppressed. But the high cost of photonic crystal impedes the development and spreading applications of photonic crystal lasers.
Semiconductor nanowire lasers have a quasi-one-dimensional structure with diameters ranging from a few nanometers to a few hundred nanometers and lengths ranging from hundreds of nanometers to a few microns. The width of nanowires is large enough to ignore the quantum size effect, but they are high quality one-dimensional waveguides with cylindrical, rectangular, trigonal, and hexagonal cross-sections. The quasi-one-dimensional structure and high feedback provided by scattering of light at the nanowire ends [29] makes it have good optical waveguide and the ability of light confinement. Nanowire lasers are similar to Fabry–Pérot cavity in mechanism, but different in quantitative reflection coefficients [30] [31] High reflectivity of nanowire and flat end facets of the wire constitute a good resonant cavity, in which photons can be bound between the two ends of the nanowire to limit the light energy to the axial direction of the nanowire, thus meeting the conditions for laser formation. [8] [32] [33] [34] Polygonal nanowires can form a nearly circular cavity in cross section that supports whispering-gallery mode.
Nanolasers based on surface plasmons are known as plasmonic nanolasers, with sizes far exceeding the diffraction limit of light. If a plasmonic nanolaser is nanoscopic in three dimensions, it is also called a spaser, which is known to have the smallest cavity size and mode size. Design of plasmonic nanolaser has become one of the most effective technology methods for laser miniaturization at present. [35] A little bit different from the conventional lasers, a typical configuration of plasmonic nanolaser includes a process of energy transfer to convert photons into surface plasmons. [10] In plasmonic nanolaser or spaser, the exciton is not photons anymore but surface plasmon polariton. Surface plasmons are collective oscillations of free electrons on metal surfaces under the action of external electromagnetic fields. [14] [17] According to their manifestations, the cavity mode in plasmonic nanolasers can be divided into the propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and the non-propagating localized surface plasmons (LSPs).
SPPs are electromagnetic waves that propagate along the interface between metal and medium, and their intensities decay gradually in the direction perpendicular to the propagation interface. In 2008, Oulton experimentally validated a plasma nanowire laser consisting of a thin dielectric layer with a low reflectivity growing on a metal surface and a gain layer with a high refractive index semiconductor nanowire. [12] In this structure, the electromagnetic field can be transferred from the metal layer to the intermediate gap layer, so that the mode energy is highly concentrated, thus greatly reducing the energy loss in the metal.
The LSP mode exists in a variety of different metal nanostructures, such as metal nanoparticles (nanospheres, nanorods, nanocubes, etc.) and arrays of nanoparticles. [35] Unlike the propagating surface plasmon polaritons, the localized surface plasmon does not propagate along the surface, but oscillates back and forth in the nanostructure in the form of standing waves. When light is incident to the surface of a metal nanoparticles, it causes a real displacement of the surface charge relative to the ions. The attraction between electrons and ions allows for the oscillation of electrode cloud and the formation of local surface from polarization excimer. [36] The oscillation of electrons is determined by the geometrical boundaries of different metal nanoparticles. When its resonance frequency is consistent with the incident electromagnetic field, it will form the localized surface plasmon resonance. In 2009, Mikhail A. Noginov of Norfolk State University in the United States successfully verified the LSPs-based nanolaser for the first time. [11] The nanolaser in this paper was composed of an Au core providing the plasmon mode and a silicon dioxide doped with OG-488 dye providing the gain medium. The diameter of the Au core was 14 nm, the thickness of the silica layer was 15 nm, and the diameter of the whole device was only 44 nm, which was the smallest nanolaser at that time.
In addition, there have been some new types of nanolasers developed in recent years to approach the diffraction limit. Parity-time symmetry is related to a balance of optical gain and loss in a coupled cavity system. When the gain–loss contrast and coupling constant between two identical, closely located cavities are controlled, the phase transition of lasing modes occurs at an exceptional point. [37] Bound states in the continuum laser confines light in an open system via the elimination of radiation states through destructive interference between resonant modes. [13] [21] A photonic topological insulator laser is based on topological insulators optical mode, where the topological states is confined within the cavity boundaries and they can be used for the formation of laser. [38] All of those new types of nanolasers have high quality factor and can achieve cavity size and mode size approaching the diffraction limit of the light.
Due to the unique capabilities including low lasing thresholds, high energy efficiencies and high modulation speeds, nanolasers show great potentials for practical applications in the fields of materials characterization, integrated optical interconnects, and sensing.
The intense optical fields of such a laser also enable the enhancement effect in non-linear optics or surface-enhanced-raman-scattering (SERS). [39] Nanowire nanolasers can be capable of optical detection at the scale of a single molecule with high resolution and ultrafast modulation.
Internet is developing at an extremely high speed with large energy consumption for data communication. The high energy efficiency of nanolasers plays an important role in decreasing energy consumption for future society. [40] [41]
Plasmonic nanolaser sensors have recently been demonstrated that can detect specific molecules in air and be used for optical biosensors. Molecules can modify the surface of metal nanoparticles and impact the surface recombination velocity of gain medium of a plasmonic nanolaser, which contributes to the sensing mechanism of plasmonic nanolasers. [23] [42]
Although nanolasers have shown great potential, there are still some challenges towards the large-scale use of nanolasers, for example, electrically injected nanolasers, cavity configuration engineering and metal quality improvement. [23] [43] For nanolasers, the realization of electrically injected or pumped operation at room temperature is a key step towards its practical application. However, most nanolaser are optically pumped and the realization of electrically injected nanolasers is still a main technical challenge at present. [43] Only a few studies have reported electrically injected nanolasers. Moreover, it still remains a challenge to realize cavity configuration engineering and metal quality improvement, which are crucial to satisfy the high-performance requirement of nanolasers and achieve their applications. [44] Recently, nanolaser arrays show great potential to increase the power efficiency and accelerate modulation speed. [45]
In physics, a plasmon is a quantum of plasma oscillation. Just as light consists of photons, the plasma oscillation consists of plasmons. The plasmon can be considered as a quasiparticle since it arises from the quantization of plasma oscillations, just like phonons are quantizations of mechanical vibrations. Thus, plasmons are collective oscillations of the free electron gas density. For example, at optical frequencies, plasmons can couple with a photon to create another quasiparticle called a plasmon polariton.
A photonic crystal is an optical nanostructure in which the refractive index changes periodically. This affects the propagation of light in the same way that the structure of natural crystals gives rise to X-ray diffraction and that the atomic lattices of semiconductors affect their conductivity of electrons. Photonic crystals occur in nature in the form of structural coloration and animal reflectors, and, as artificially produced, promise to be useful in a range of applications.
Nanophotonics or nano-optics is the study of the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, and of the interaction of nanometer-scale objects with light. It is a branch of optics, optical engineering, electrical engineering, and nanotechnology. It often involves dielectric structures such as nanoantennas, or metallic components, which can transport and focus light via surface plasmon polaritons.
A spaser or plasmonic laser is a type of laser which aims to confine light at a subwavelength scale far below Rayleigh's diffraction limit of light, by storing some of the light energy in electron oscillations called surface plasmon polaritons. The phenomenon was first described by David J. Bergman and Mark Stockman in 2003. The word spaser is an acronym for "surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The first such devices were announced in 2009 by three groups: a 44-nanometer-diameter nanoparticle with a gold core surrounded by a dyed silica gain medium created by researchers from Purdue, Norfolk State and Cornell universities, a nanowire on a silver screen by a Berkeley group, and a semiconductor layer of 90 nm surrounded by silver pumped electrically by groups at the Eindhoven University of Technology and at Arizona State University. While the Purdue-Norfolk State-Cornell team demonstrated the confined plasmonic mode, the Berkeley team and the Eindhoven-Arizona State team demonstrated lasing in the so-called plasmonic gap mode. In 2018, a team from Northwestern University demonstrated a tunable nanolaser that can preserve its high mode quality by exploiting hybrid quadrupole plasmons as an optical feedback mechanism.
A plasmonic-enhanced solar cell, commonly referred to simply as plasmonic solar cell, is a type of solar cell that converts light into electricity with the assistance of plasmons, but where the photovoltaic effect occurs in another material.
A random laser (RL) is a laser in which optical feedback is provided by scattering particles. As in conventional lasers, a gain medium is required for optical amplification. However, in contrast to Fabry–Pérot cavities and distributed feedback lasers, neither reflective surfaces nor distributed periodic structures are used in RLs, as light is confined in an active region by diffusive elements that either may or may not be spatially distributed inside the gain medium.
A plasmonic metamaterial is a metamaterial that uses surface plasmons to achieve optical properties not seen in nature. Plasmons are produced from the interaction of light with metal-dielectric materials. Under specific conditions, the incident light couples with the surface plasmons to create self-sustaining, propagating electromagnetic waves known as surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Once launched, the SPPs ripple along the metal-dielectric interface. Compared with the incident light, the SPPs can be much shorter in wavelength.
Whispering-gallery waves, or whispering-gallery modes, are a type of wave that can travel around a concave surface. Originally discovered for sound waves in the whispering gallery of St Paul's Cathedral, they can exist for light and for other waves, with important applications in nondestructive testing, lasing, cooling and sensing, as well as in astronomy.
A localized surface plasmon (LSP) is the result of the confinement of a surface plasmon in a nanoparticle of size comparable to or smaller than the wavelength of light used to excite the plasmon. When a small spherical metallic nanoparticle is irradiated by light, the oscillating electric field causes the conduction electrons to oscillate coherently. When the electron cloud is displaced relative to its original position, a restoring force arises from Coulombic attraction between electrons and nuclei. This force causes the electron cloud to oscillate. The oscillation frequency is determined by the density of electrons, the effective electron mass, and the size and shape of the charge distribution. The LSP has two important effects: electric fields near the particle's surface are greatly enhanced and the particle's optical absorption has a maximum at the plasmon resonant frequency. Surface plasmon resonance can also be tuned based on the shape of the nanoparticle. The plasmon frequency can be related to the metal dielectric constant. The enhancement falls off quickly with distance from the surface and, for noble metal nanoparticles, the resonance occurs at visible wavelengths. Localized surface plasmon resonance creates brilliant colors in metal colloidal solutions.
Photonic molecules are a form of matter in which photons bind together to form "molecules". They were first predicted in 2007. Photonic molecules are formed when individual (massless) photons "interact with each other so strongly that they act as though they have mass". In an alternative definition, photons confined to two or more coupled optical cavities also reproduce the physics of interacting atomic energy levels, and have been termed as photonic molecules.
Ortwin Hess is a German-born theoretical physicist at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and Imperial College London (UK), working in condensed matter optics. Bridging condensed matter theory and quantum optics he specialises in quantum nanophotonics, plasmonics, metamaterials and semiconductor laser dynamics. Since the late 1980s he has been an author and coauthor of over 300 peer-reviewed articles, the most popular of which, called "'Trapped rainbow' storage of light in metamaterials", was cited more than 400 times. He pioneered active nanoplasmonics and metamaterials with quantum gain and in 2014 he introduced the "stopped-light lasing" principle as a novel route to cavity-free (nano-) lasing and localisation of amplified surface plasmon polaritons, giving him an h-index of 33.
A hybrid plasmonic waveguide is an optical waveguide that achieves strong light confinement by coupling the light guided by a dielectric waveguide and a plasmonic waveguide. It is formed by separating a medium of high refractive index from a metal surface by a small gap.
Plasmonics or nanoplasmonics refers to the generation, detection, and manipulation of signals at optical frequencies along metal-dielectric interfaces in the nanometer scale. Inspired by photonics, plasmonics follows the trend of miniaturizing optical devices, and finds applications in sensing, microscopy, optical communications, and bio-photonics.
A nanophotonic resonator or nanocavity is an optical cavity which is on the order of tens to hundreds of nanometers in size. Optical cavities are a major component of all lasers, they are responsible for providing amplification of a light source via positive feedback, a process known as amplified spontaneous emission or ASE. Nanophotonic resonators offer inherently higher light energy confinement than ordinary cavities, which means stronger light-material interactions, and therefore lower lasing threshold provided the quality factor of the resonator is high. Nanophotonic resonators can be made with photonic crystals, silicon, diamond, or metals such as gold.
An electromagnetic metasurface refers to a kind of artificial sheet material with sub-wavelength features. Metasurfaces can be either structured or unstructured with subwavelength-scaled patterns.
Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) is a variant of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) that combines scanning probe microscopy with Raman spectroscopy. High spatial resolution chemical imaging is possible via TERS, with routine demonstrations of nanometer spatial resolution under ambient laboratory conditions, or better at ultralow temperatures and high pressure.
Semiconductor nanowire lasers are nano-scaled lasers that can be embedded on chips and constitute an advance for computing and information processing applications. Nanowire lasers are coherent light sources as any other laser device, with the advantage of operating at the nanoscale. Built by molecular beam epitaxy, nanowire lasers offer the possibility for direct integration on silicon, and the construction of optical interconnects and data communication at the chip scale. Nanowire lasers are built from III–V semiconductor heterostructures. Their unique 1D configuration and high refractive index allow for low optical loss and recirculation in the active nanowire core region. This enables subwavelength laser sizes of only a few hundred nanometers. Nanowires are Fabry–Perot resonator cavities defined by the end facets of the wire, therefore they do not require polishing or cleaving for high-reflectivity facets as in conventional lasers.
Spoof surface plasmons, also known as spoof surface plasmon polaritons and designer surface plasmons, are surface electromagnetic waves in microwave and terahertz regimes that propagate along planar interfaces with sign-changing permittivities. Spoof surface plasmons are a type of surface plasmon polariton, which ordinarily propagate along metal and dielectric interfaces in infrared and visible frequencies. Since surface plasmon polaritons cannot exist naturally in microwave and terahertz frequencies due to dispersion properties of metals, spoof surface plasmons necessitate the use of artificially-engineered metamaterials.
Mark Stockman was a Soviet-born American physicist. He was a professor of physics and astronomy at Georgia State University. Best known for his contributions to plasmonics, Stockman has co-theorized plasmonic lasers, also known as spasers, in 2003.
Jaime Gómez Rivas is a Spanish physicist and an academic. He is a professor at Eindhoven University of Technology.