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Directional lasing in resonant semiconductor nanoantenna arrays

Nature Nanotechnology volume 13, pages 1042–1047 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

High-index dielectric and semiconductor nanoparticles supporting strong electric and magnetic resonances have drawn significant attention in recent years. However, until now, there have been no experimental reports of lasing action from such nanostructures. Here, we demonstrate directional lasing, with a low threshold and high quality factor, in active dielectric nanoantenna arrays achieved through a leaky resonance excited in coupled gallium arsenide (GaAs) nanopillars. The leaky resonance is formed by partially breaking a bound state in the continuum generated by the collective, vertical electric dipole resonances excited in the nanopillars for subdiffractive arrays. We control the directionality of the emitted light while maintaining a high quality factor (Q = 2,750). The lasing directivity and wavelength can be tuned via the nanoantenna array geometry and by modifying the gain spectrum of GaAs with temperature. The obtained results provide guidelines for achieving surface-emitting laser devices based on active dielectric nanoantennas that are compact and highly transparent.

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Fig. 1: Structure of the resonant dielectric nanoantenna array.
Fig. 2: Resonant modes in the GaAs nanopillar array.
Fig. 3: Lasing action in the resonant semiconductor nanoantenna array.
Fig. 4: Wavelength-tunable lasing in dielectric nanoantenna array.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the A*STAR SERC Pharos programme (grant number 152 73 00025; Singapore). We acknowledge L. Krivitskiy and V. Leong Xu Heng for help with photon autocorrelation function measurements, and V. Valuckas for SEM characterization.

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Author notes

  1. Son Tung Ha, Zhenying Pan, Reuben M. Bakker, Ramón Paniagua-Domínguez & Arseniy I. Kuznetsov

    Present address: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore, Singapore

  2. Yuan Hsing Fu

    Present address: Institute of Microelectronics, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore, Singapore

  3. Naresh Kumar Emani

    Present address: Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India

  4. These authors contributed equally: Son Tung Ha, Yuan Hsing Fu, Naresh Kumar Emani.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Data Storage Institute, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore, Singapore

    Son Tung Ha, Yuan Hsing Fu, Naresh Kumar Emani, Zhenying Pan, Reuben M. Bakker, Ramón Paniagua-Domínguez & Arseniy I. Kuznetsov

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Contributions

S.T.H. and Y.H.F. constructed the low-temperature emission measurement set-up and performed the optical characterization. S.T.H. performed the photon autocorrelation measurements and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. N.K.E. optimized the fabrication process, prepared the samples and performed initial-stage optical characterization and analyses. Z.P. assisted in constructing the low-temperature emission measurement set-up. R.M.B. helped with the initial stage of the optical measurements. R.P.-D. conceived the idea of a BIC laser in the nanoantenna arrays, and performed the simulations. A.I.K. conceived the idea of resonant semiconductor nanoantenna lasers and supervised the work. All authors discussed the results and worked on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Arseniy I. Kuznetsov.

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Ha, S.T., Fu, Y.H., Emani, N.K. et al. Directional lasing in resonant semiconductor nanoantenna arrays. Nature Nanotech 13, 1042–1047 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0245-5

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