Two-dimensional material plasmonic laser

Abstract

A two-dimensional material plasmonic laser (device) is provided with a surface plasmonic cavity and an atomically thin semiconductor monolayer gain medium disposed on the surface plasmonic cavity. Under optical pumping or electrical pumping, the surface plasmonic cavity provides a laser feedback mechanism by coupling electron-hole pairs confined in the atomically thin semiconductor monolayer gain medium and the surface plasmon modes in the dark-mode surface plasmonic cavity, and a laser light is emitted from the two-dimensional material plasmonic laser.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention[0001]The present invention relates to surface emitting laser, and more particularly, relates to two-dimensional material plasmonic laser.2. Description of Related Art[0002]Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are promising materials for light-emitting devices because they change from indirect to direct band-gap semiconductors when passing from the multilayer (bulk) to the monolayer regime1. One import recent development for such devices is the demonstration of lasing by coupling monolayer TMDC gain media with high-quality-factor (high-Q, Q≈1,000-5,000) photonic cavity modes2-4, such as defect modes in photonic crystals2,4 and whispering-gallery modes in a microdisk3. However, the two-dimensional (2D) nature of monolayer TMDCs has not been fully explored in these photonic-cavity lasers. Especially, monolayer TMDCs could open up new possibilities for semiconductor surface-emitting lasers, which are efficient in light e...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012]The success demonstration of small-footprint, open-geometry surface emitting lasers based on two-dimensional material device architectures can bring about significant advancement in integrated photonic technologies.

Problems solved by technology

However, the two-dimensional (2D) nature of monolayer TMDCs has not been fully explored in these photonic-cavity lasers.

At present, the performance of surface-emitting lasers is limited by viable semiconductor heteroepitaxial growth, especially for the visible and long infrared spectral ranges.

At present, the poor optical, electrical, and thermal properties of available DBR mirror materials hinder the realization of VCSELs to be used over a broad spectrum, especially for the visible and long infrared spectral ranges, severely limiting their potential applications.

However, plasmonic-cavity-enabled lasing has not yet been realized because of stringent requirements in low-loss plasmonic material and cavity design.

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