Room-temperature continuous-wave indirect-bandgap transition lasing in an ultra-thin WS2 disk

Small semiconductor lasers that can be integrated on a chip are essential for a wide range of optical applications, including optical computing, communication and sensing. Practical laser applications have only been developed with direct-bandgap materials because of a general belief that lasing acti...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature photonics 2022-11, Vol.16 (11), p.792-797
Main Authors: Sung, Junghyun, Shin, Dongjin, Cho, HyunHee, Lee, Seong Won, Park, Seungmin, Kim, Young Duck, Moon, Jong Sung, Kim, Je-Hyung, Gong, Su-Hyun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
140/125
142/126
639/624/1020/1093
639/624/400/1021
Applied and Technical Physics
Continuous radiation
Energy gap
Glass substrates
Laser applications
Lasers
Lasing
Light
Photonics
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Quantum Physics
Room temperature
Semiconductor lasers
Semiconductors
Thin films
Wave excitation
Whispering gallery modes
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Small semiconductor lasers that can be integrated on a chip are essential for a wide range of optical applications, including optical computing, communication and sensing. Practical laser applications have only been developed with direct-bandgap materials because of a general belief that lasing action from indirect-bandgap materials is almost impossible. Here we report unexpected indirect-bandgap transition lasing in an ultra-thin WS 2 disk. We demonstrate that a 50-nm-thick WS 2 disk offers efficient optical gain and whispering gallery modes that are sufficient for lasing action. As a result, the WS 2 disk exhibits indirect transition lasing, even under continuous-wave excitation at room temperature. Our experimental results are in close agreement with theoretical modelling for phonon-assisted photon lasing. The results derived from external cavity-free ultra-thin WS 2 layers offer a new direction for van-der-Waals-material-based nanophotonics and introduce the possibility for optical devices based on indirect-bandgap materials. Indirect-bandgap transition lasing, even under continuous-wave excitation at room temperature, is demonstrated in an ultra-thin WS 2 disk.
ISSN:1749-4885
1749-4893
DOI:10.1038/s41566-022-01085-w