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Monolayer excitonic laser

Nature Photonics volume 9, pages 733–737 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Two-dimensional van der Waals materials have opened a new paradigm for fundamental physics exploration and device applications because of their emerging physical properties. Unlike gapless graphene, monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are two-dimensional semiconductors that undergo an indirect-to-direct bandgap transition1,2,3,4,5, creating new optical functionalities for next-generation ultra-compact photonics and optoelectronics. Although the enhancement of spontaneous emission has been reported on TMDC monolayers integrated with photonic crystals6,7 and distributed Bragg reflector microcavities8,9, coherent light emission from a TMDC monolayer has not been demonstrated. Here, we report the realization of a two-dimensional excitonic laser by embedding monolayer WS2 in a microdisk resonator. Using a whispering gallery mode with a high quality factor and optical confinement, we observe bright excitonic lasing at visible wavelengths. This demonstration of a two-dimensional excitonic laser marks a major step towards two-dimensional on-chip optoelectronics for high-performance optical communication and computing applications.

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Figure 1: Design of the monolayer exitonic laser.
Figure 2: Whispering gallery modes of the monolayer excitonic laser.
Figure 3: Observation of monolayer WS2 excitonic lasing.
Figure 4: Characterizations of two-dimensional excitonic lasing.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research under award no. FA9550-12-1-0197 (Optical Design and Characterization), and the ‘Light–Material Interaction in Energy Conversion’ Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under award no. DE-AC02-05CH11231 (Materials Synthesis and Lithography). The authors also thank A. Grine for his help in measuring the passive Q factor of the cavity.

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Author notes

  1. Yu Ye and Zi Jing Wong: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, University of California, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Yu Ye, Zi Jing Wong, Xingjie Ni, Hanyu Zhu, Yuan Wang & Xiang Zhang

  2. Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Yu Ye, Zi Jing Wong, Xingjie Ni, Yuan Wang & Xiang Zhang

  3. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Science at Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, Anhui, China

    Xiufang Lu & Xianhui Chen

  4. Department of Physics, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia

    Xiang Zhang

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Contributions

X.Z., Y.W., Y.Y. and Z.J.W. conceived the project. X.L. and X.C. grew bulk WS2 crystals. Y.Y., Z.J.W. and H.Z. developed the sample design and fabricated the samples. Y.Y., Z.J.W. and X.N. performed the measurements. Z.J.W. and Y.Y. performed the numerical simulation. Y.Y. and Z.J.W. carried out the data analysis. Y.Y., Z.J.W., X.Z. and Y.W. wrote the manuscript. X.Z. and Y.W. guided the research. All authors contributed to discussions.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiang Zhang.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Ye, Y., Wong, Z., Lu, X. et al. Monolayer excitonic laser. Nature Photon 9, 733–737 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.197

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