Nanolasers operate with a minimal amount of active material and low losses. In this regime, single layers of transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are being investigated as next generation gain materials due to their high quantum efficiency. We provide results from microscopic gain calculations of highly excited TMD monolayers and specify requirements to achieve lasing with four commonly used TMD semiconductors. Our approach includes band-structure renormalizations due to excited carriers that trigger a direct-to-indirect band gap transition. As a consequence, we predict a rollover for the gain that limits the excitation regime where laser operation is possible. A parametrization of the peak gain is provided that is used in combination with a rate-equation theory to discuss consequences for experimentally accessible laser characteristics.
Keywords: 2D materials; laser theory; laser threshold; microscopic modeling; nanolasers; optical gain; transition-metal dichalcogenides.