Self-frequency-conversion nanowire lasers

Ruixuan Yi; Xutao Zhang; Chen Li; Bijun Zhao; Jing Wang; Zhiwen Li; Xuetao Gan; Li Li; Ziyuan Li; Fanlu Zhang; Liang Fang; Naiyin Wang; Pingping Chen; Wei Lu; Lan Fu; Jianlin Zhao; Hark Hoe Tan; Chennupati Jagadish

doi:10.1038/s41377-022-00807-7

Self-frequency-conversion nanowire lasers

Light Sci Appl. 2022 Apr 29;11(1):120. doi: 10.1038/s41377-022-00807-7.

Authors

Ruixuan Yi¹, Xutao Zhang^{2

3}, Chen Li¹, Bijun Zhao¹, Jing Wang¹, Zhiwen Li¹, Xuetao Gan⁴, Li Li⁵, Ziyuan Li⁵, Fanlu Zhang⁵, Liang Fang¹, Naiyin Wang⁵, Pingping Chen^{6

7}, Wei Lu^{6

7

8}, Lan Fu^{5

9}, Jianlin Zhao¹, Hark Hoe Tan^{5

9}, Chennupati Jagadish^{5

9}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Light Field Manipulation and Information Acquisition, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Optical Information Technology, School of Physical Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 710129, Xi'an, China.
² Key Laboratory of Light Field Manipulation and Information Acquisition, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Optical Information Technology, School of Physical Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 710129, Xi'an, China. xtzhang@nwpu.edu.cn.
³ Frontiers Science Center for Flexible Electronics, Xi'an Institute of Flexible Electronics (IFE) and Xi'an Institute of Biomedical Materials & Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127 West Youyi Road, 710072, Xi'an, China. xtzhang@nwpu.edu.cn.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Light Field Manipulation and Information Acquisition, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Optical Information Technology, School of Physical Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 710129, Xi'an, China. xuetaogan@nwpu.edu.cn.
⁵ Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia.
⁶ State Key Laboratory for Infrared Physics, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 500 Yutian Road, 200083, Shanghai, China.
⁷ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yuquan Road, 100049, Beijing, China.
⁸ School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, 393 Middle Huaxia Road, Pudong District, 201210, Shanghai, China.
⁹ ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems, Research School of Physics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia.

Abstract

Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) could simultaneously provide gain medium and optical cavity for performing nanoscale lasers with easy integration, ultracompact footprint, and low energy consumption. Here, we report III-V semiconductor NW lasers can also be used for self-frequency conversion to extend their output wavelengths, as a result of their non-centrosymmetric crystal structure and strongly localized optical field in the NWs. From a GaAs/In_0.16Ga_0.84As core/shell NW lasing at 1016 nm, an extra visible laser output at 508 nm is obtained via the process of second-harmonic generation, as confirmed by the far-field polarization dependence measurements and numerical modeling. From another NW laser with a larger diameter which supports multiple fundamental lasing wavelengths, multiple self-frequency-conversion lasing modes are observed due to second-harmonic generation and sum-frequency generation. The demonstrated self-frequency conversion of NW lasers opens an avenue for extending the working wavelengths of nanoscale lasers, even to the deep ultraviolet and THz range.