Lasing is demonstrated from gallium nitride nanotubes fabricated using a two-step top-down technique. By optically pumping, we observed characteristics of lasing: a clear threshold, a narrow spectral, and guided emission from the nanotubes. In addition, annular lasing emission from the GaN nanotube is also observed, indicating that cross-sectional shape control can be employed to manipulate the properties of nanolasers. The nanotube lasers could be of interest for optical nanofluidic applications or application benefitting from a hollow beam shape.
In recent years there has been a tremendous interest in nanoscale optoelectronic devices. Among these devices are semiconductor nanowires whose diameters range from 10-100 nm. To date, nanowires have been grown using many semiconducting material systems and have been utilized as light emitting diodes, photodetectors, and solar cells. Nanowires possess a relatively large index contrast relative to their dielectric environment and can be used as lasers. A key gure of merit that allows for nanowire lasing is the relatively high optical con nement factor. In this work, I discuss the optical characterization of 3 types of III-nitride nanowire laser devices. Two devices were designed to reduce the number of lasing modes to achieve singlemode operation. The third device implements low-group velocity mode lasing with a photonic crystal constructed of an array of nanowires. Single-mode operation is necessary in any application where high beam quality and single frequency operation is required. III-Nitride nanowire lasers typically operate in a combined multi-longitudinal and multi-transverse mode state. Two schemes are introduced here for controlling the optical modes and achieving single-mode op eration. The rst method involves reducing the diameter of individual nanowires to the cut-o condition, where only one optical mode propagates in the wire. The second method employs distributed feedback (DFB) to achieve single-mode lasing by placing individual GaN nanowires onto substrates with etched gratings. The nanowire-grating substrate acted as a distributed feedback mirror producing single mode operation at 370 nm with a mode suppression ratio (MSR) of 17 dB. The usage of lasers for solid state lighting has the potential to further reduce U.S. lighting energy usage through an increase in emitter e ciency. Advances in nanowire fabrication, speci cally a two-step top-down approach, have allowed for the demonstration of a multi-color array of lasers on a single chip that emit vertically. By tuning the geometrical properties of the individual lasers across the array, each individual nanowire laser produced a di erent emission wavelength yielding a near continuum of laser wavelengths. I successfully fabricated an array of emitters spanning a bandwidth of 60 nm on a single chip. This was achieved in the blue-violet using III-nitride photonic crystal nanowire lasers.
The reflection of an optical wave from metal, arising from strong interactions between the optical electric field and the free carriers of the metal, is accompanied by a phase reversal of the reflected electric field. A far less common route to achieving high reflectivity exploits strong interactions between the material and the optical magnetic field to produce a “magnetic mirror” that does not reverse the phase of the reflected electric field. At optical frequencies, the magnetic properties required for strong interaction can be achieved only by using artificially tailored materials. Here, we experimentally demonstrate, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, the magnetic mirror behavior of a low-loss all-dielectric metasurface at infrared optical frequencies through direct measurements of the phase and amplitude of the reflected optical wave. The enhanced absorption and emission of transverse-electric dipoles placed close to magnetic mirrors can lead to exciting new advances in sensors, photodetectors, and light sources.
We have demonstrated single-mode lasing in a single gallium nitride nanowire using distributed feedback by external coupling to a dielectric grating. By adjusting the nanowire grating alignment we achieved a mode suppression ratio of 17dB.