Birck Nanotechnology Center

ECE 695 Lecture on

Nanolasers
Presented by Mawufemor Yao Kudadze and
Clayton DeVault

December 2, 2013

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HONEY, I

SHRUNK

THE LASER!

Ted
Maiman,
May 1960

http://www.aip.org/history/exhibits/laser/sections/therace.html

December 2, 2013

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LASER: An Optical Oscillator

An oscillator comprises,
An amplifier with a gainsaturation mechanism
A feedback system
A frequency-selection
mechanism
An output coupling scheme

Sub-wavelength
dimensions!
December 2, 2013

Fundamentals of Photonics, B.E.A. Saleh and M.C. Teich, John Wiley and Sons (2007)

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Why do we need a Nanolaser?

Moores law in photonics

Bottle-neck for down scaling photonic circuits remains the

lack of an integrated and efficient light source on a chip!
December 2, 2013

M.K. Smith, Moores Law in photonics, Laser and Photonics Rev. Vol. 6, 1-13, (2012)

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Why do we need a Nanolaser?

Other areas of application
Optical Metrology
Sensing, particularly applied in
the bio-medical and
chemical fields
Ultra-fast spectroscopy
Plus, its just cool!
December 2, 2013

M.K. Smith, Moores Law in photonics, Laser and Photonics Rev. Vol. 6, 1-13, (2012)

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Challenges for Nanolasers

December 2, 2013

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Surface Plasmon Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation:

Quantum Generation of Coherent Surface Plamons in Nanosystems

A spaser is the nanoplasmonic

counterpart of a laser, but it
(ideally) does not emit photons.

The spaser radiation consists of

SPs that are bosons and undergo
stimulated emission but in contrast
to photonics can be localized on the
nanoscale.

December 2, 2013

M.I. Stockman, Nature Photonics 2, 237-329 (2008)

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Single-interface SPPs: incorporating gain

J. Seidel et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 177401 (2005)

P.M. Bolger et al. Opt. Lett. 35, 1197 (2010)

December 2, 2013

P. Berini and I.D. Leon, Nature Photonics 6, 16-24 (2012)

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The race for a nanolaser

Nature Materials 1, 106 - 110 (2002)

PHYSICAL REVIEW A 74, 051802R 2006

Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 181112 (2007)

December 2, 2013

Opt. Express 14, 1094-1105 (2006)

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Demonstration of a spaser-based nanolaser

M.A. Noginov et. al., Norfolk State University

Spaser design

Emission kinetics

December 2, 2013

Stimulated emission

M.A. Noginov, V.M. Shalaev, U. Wiesner et. al. Nature 000, 1-3 (2009)

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Plasmon Laser at deep subwavelength scale

X. Zhang et. al., U.C. Berkeley

Multiple cavity mode resonances

=> sufficient material gain for full
laser oscillation => nonlinear
response
Weak dependence of plasmonic
cavity modes on diameter and no
photonic modes with small
diameter cavities

December 2, 2013

X. Zhang et. al. Nature 461, 629 (2009)

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Lasing in metal-insulator-metal (MIM) sub-wavelength

plasmonic waveguides
M.T. Hill, COBRA research institute

High field loss with MIM

But allows sub-wavelength
confinement
TM only with small t and
Supports TE mode for large t
Electrically pumped MIM structure - Gain
incorporated for loss Compensation
December 2, 2013

M.T. Hill Opt. Express 17, 11107 (2009)

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Lasing in metal-insulator-metal (MIM) sub-wavelength

plasmonic waveguides
M.T. Hill, COBRA research institute

I<It

78K

298K

I>It

I<It

I>It
10K

I<It

I>It

Theoretical Q > 140 @ 300K

Measure Q = 370 @ 78K 340 @ 300K
December 2, 2013

M.T. Hill Opt. Express 17, 11107 (2009)

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Room-temperature sub-diffraction-limited plasmon laser by total

internal reflection
X. Zhang, U.C. Berkeley

Strong couling with higher

momentum and minimized
metal loss
Strong Confinement with
Q~100 => High Purcell factor
of 18 => low lifetime (emission
rate enhancement)

December 2, 2013

X. Zhang, Nature Materials 10, 110 (2011)

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Plasmonic Bowtie Nanolaser Arrays

T.W. Odom et. al., Northwestern University

Bowtie Lasing at Room

Temperature

NANO
LETTERS

Optical Characterization

Bi-periodic array for periods of

1.2m and 0.6m

December 2, 2013

Teri W. Odom; Nano Lett. 2012, 12, 5769-5774.

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Optically pumped room-temperature GaAs nanowire lasers

C. Jagadish et. al., Australian National Unviersity

From left to right, core GaAs,

core-shell AlGaAs,GaAs, coreshell-cap GaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs
Nanolase (500nm scale bar)

nature
photonics

Low-temperature Lasing
Characterisitics

Room-temperature Lasing Characteristics in

Near-IR

Optimize threshold gain

using,

where is the mode

confinement factor, g is
threshold gain and L and R
are the length and radius
of the nanowire,
respectively.
th

December 2, 2013

C. Jagadish et al. Nature Photonics 7, 1-6 (2013)

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Conclusion
Perspective and challenges

Success with material for miniaturization , loss- compensation

and amplifying (Plasmons), Operating temperatures (Room)

Large momentum mismatch of light inside and outside of a nano- sized

cavity yielding beam diffraction into all directions at exit of cavity.
High optical pumping damage - Realistic applications require innovative
design structures for electrical pumping without perturbation of the
optical mode.

December 2, 2013

For large scale integration, top-down processing is preferred, yet most

current plasmon laser have relied on bottom up semiconductor growth
techniques and post growth assembly.

X. Meng et al. Nano Letters 13, 4106 (2013)

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Thank you for your attention!

Question?

December 2, 2013

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