Abstract
Miniaturized lasers play a central role in the infrastructure of modern information society. The breakthrough in laser miniaturization beyond the wavelength scale has opened up new opportunities for a wide range of applications1,2,3,4, as well as for investigating light–matter interactions in extreme-optical-field localization and lasing-mode engineering5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19. An ultimate objective of microscale laser research is to develop reconfigurable coherent nanolaser arrays that can simultaneously enhance information capacity and functionality. However, the absence of a suitable physical mechanism for reconfiguring nanolaser cavities hinders the demonstration of nanolasers in either a single cavity or a fixed array. Here we propose and demonstrate moiré nanolaser arrays based on optical flatbands in twisted photonic graphene lattices, in which coherent nanolasing is realized from a single nanocavity to reconfigurable arrays of nanocavities. We observe synchronized nanolaser arrays exhibiting high spatial and spectral coherence, across a range of distinct patterns, including P, K and U shapes and the Chinese characters ‘中’ and ‘国’ (‘China’ in Chinese). Moreover, we obtain nanolaser arrays that emit with spatially varying relative phases, allowing us to manipulate emission directions. Our work lays the foundation for the development of reconfigurable active devices that have potential applications in communication, LiDAR (light detection and ranging), optical computing and imaging.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
We declare that the data supporting the findings of this study are available in the paper.
References
Berini, P. & De Leon, I. Surface plasmon–polariton amplifiers and lasers. Nat. Photon. 6, 16–24 (2012).
Hill, M. T. & Gather, M. C. Advances in small lasers. Nat. Photon. 8, 908–918 (2014).
Eaton, S. W., Fu, A., Wong, A. B., Ning, C. Z. & Yang, P. Semiconductor nanowire lasers. Nat. Rev. Mater. 1, 16028 (2016).
Ma, R.-M. & Oulton, R. F. Applications of nanolasers. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 12–22 (2019).
Bandres, M. A. et al. Topological insulator laser: experiments. Science 359, eaar4005 (2018).
Ha, S. T. et al. Directional lasing in resonant semiconductor nanoantenna arrays. Nat. Nanotechnol. 13, 1042–1047 (2018).
Yoshida, M. et al. Double-lattice photonic-crystal resonators enabling high-brightness semiconductor lasers with symmetric narrow-divergence beams. Nat. Mater. 18, 121–128 (2019).
Carlon Zambon, N. et al. Optically controlling the emission chirality of microlasers. Nat. Photon. 13, 283–288 (2019).
Zeng, Y. et al. Electrically pumped topological laser with valley edge modes. Nature 578, 246–250 (2020).
Shao, Z. K. et al. A high-performance topological bulk laser based on band-inversion-induced reflection. Nat. Nanotechnol. 15, 67–72 (2020).
Yang, Z. Q., Shao, Z. K., Chen, H. Z., Mao, X. R. & Ma, R. M. Spin-momentum-locked edge mode for topological vortex lasing. Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 013903 (2020).
Huang, C. et al. Ultrafast control of vortex microlasers. Science 367, 1018–1021 (2020).
Dikopoltsev, A. et al. Topological insulator vertical-cavity laser array. Science 373, 1514–1517 (2021).
Contractor, R. et al. Scalable single-mode surface-emitting laser via open-Dirac singularities. Nature 608, 692–698 (2022).
Zhang, Z. et al. Spin–orbit microlaser emitting in a four-dimensional Hilbert space. Nature 612, 246–251 (2022).
Yang, L. et al. Topological-cavity surface-emitting laser. Nat. Photon. 16, 279–283 (2022).
Schumer, A. et al. Topological modes in a laser cavity through exceptional state transfer. Science 375, 884–888 (2022).
Sang, Y. G. et al. Topological polarization singular lasing with highly efficient radiation channel. Nat. Commun. 13, 6485 (2022).
Chen, Y. et al. Compact spin-valley-locked perovskite emission. Nat. Mater. 22, 1065–1070 (2023).
Bistritzer, R. & MacDonald, A. H. Moiré bands in twisted double-layer graphene. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 12233–12237 (2011).
Dean, C. R. et al. Hofstadter’s butterfly and the fractal quantum Hall effect in moiré superlattices. Nature 497, 598–602 (2013).
Ponomarenko, L. A. et al. Cloning of Dirac fermions in graphene superlattices. Nature 497, 594–597 (2013).
Cao, Y. et al. Correlated insulator behaviour at half-filling in magic-angle graphene superlattices. Nature 556, 80–84 (2018).
Cao, Y. et al. Unconventional superconductivity in magic-angle graphene superlattices. Nature 556, 43–50 (2018).
Kennes, D. M. et al. Moiré heterostructures as a condensed-matter quantum simulator. Nat. Phys. 17, 155–163 (2021).
Huang, D., Choi, J., Shih, C.-K. & Li, X. Excitons in semiconductor moiré superlattices. Nat. Nanotechnol. 17, 227–238 (2022).
Sunku, S. S. et al. Photonic crystals for nano-light in moiré graphene superlattices. Science 362, 1153–1156 (2018).
Hu, G. et al. Topological polaritons and photonic magic angles in twisted α-MoO3 bilayers. Nature 582, 209–213 (2020).
Wang, P. et al. Localization and delocalization of light in photonic moiré lattices. Nature 577, 42–46 (2020).
Mao, X. R., Shao, Z. K., Luan, H. Y., Wang, S. L. & Ma, R. M. Magic-angle lasers in nanostructured moiré superlattice. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16, 1099–1105 (2021).
Dong, K. et al. Flat bands in magic-angle bilayer photonic crystals at small twists. Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 223601 (2021).
Ma, R. M. et al. Twisted lattice nanocavity with theoretical quality factor exceeding 200 billion. Fundam. Res. 3, 537–543 (2023).
Wang, H., Ma, S., Zhang, S. & Lei, D. Intrinsic superflat bands in general twisted bilayer systems. Light Sci. Appl. 11, 159 (2022).
Meng, Z. et al. Atomic Bose–Einstein condensate in twisted-bilayer optical lattices. Nature 615, 231–236 (2023).
Du, L. et al. Moiré photonics and optoelectronics. Science 379, eadg0014 (2023).
Guan, J. et al. Far-field coupling between moiré photonic lattices. Nat. Nanotechnol. 18, 514–520 (2023).
Tang, H. et al. Experimental probe of twist angle–dependent band structure of on-chip optical bilayer photonic crystal. Sci. Adv. 9, eadh8498 (2023).
Zheng, Z. et al. Phonon polaritons in twisted double-layers of hyperbolic van der Waals crystals. Nano Lett. 20, 5301–5308 (2020).
Duan, J. et al. Twisted nano-optics: manipulating light at the nanoscale with twisted phonon polaritonic slabs. Nano Lett. 20, 5323–5329 (2020).
Chen, M. et al. Configurable phonon polaritons in twisted α-MoO3. Nat. Mater. 19, 1307–1311 (2020).
Chen, C. et al. Emergence of interfacial polarons from electron–phonon coupling in graphene/h-BN van der Waals heterostructures. Nano Lett. 18, 1082–1087 (2018).
Sutherland, B. Localization of electronic wave functions due to local topology. Phys. Rev. B 34, 5208–5211 (1986).
Arai, M., Tokihiro, T., Fujiwara, T. & Kohmoto, M. Strictly localized states on a two-dimensional Penrose lattice. Phys. Rev. B 38, 1621–1626 (1988).
Guzmán-Silva, D. et al. Experimental observation of bulk and edge transport in photonic Lieb lattices. New J. Phys. 16, 063061 (2014).
Mukherjee, S. et al. Observation of a localized flat-band state in a photonic Lieb lattice. Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 245504 (2015).
Vicencio, R. A. et al. Observation of localized states in Lieb photonic lattices. Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 245503 (2015).
Xia, S. et al. Unconventional flatband line states in photonic Lieb lattices. Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 263902 (2018).
Tang, L. et al. Photonic flat-band lattices and unconventional light localization. Nanophotonics 9, 1161–1176 (2020).
Tsakmakidis, K. L., Pickering, T. W., Hamm, J. M., Page, A. F. & Hess, O. Completely stopped and dispersionless light in plasmonic waveguides. Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 167401 (2014).
Tsakmakidis, K. L., Hess, O., Boyd, R. W. & Zhang, X. Ultraslow waves on the nanoscale. Science 358, eaan5196 (2017).
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (grant nos. 2018YFA0704401 and 2022YFA1404700), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 12225402, 91950115, 11774014 and 62321004), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Z180011) and the New Cornerstone Science Foundation through the XPLORER PRIZE. The authors thank Peking Nanofab and the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology for fabrication assistance.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
R.-M.M. conceived the concept and supervised the project. H.-Y.L., Y.-H.O. and W.-Z.M. carried out numerical simulations and performed optical characterization. Z.-W.Z. and W.-Z.M. fabricated the devices. R.-M.M., H.-Y.L. and Y.-H.O. performed the data analysis. R.-M.M. wrote the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Extended data figures and tables
Extended Data Fig. 1 Fabrication procedure of the reconfigurable moiré nanolaser array.
The semiconductor membrane for moiré superlattice fabrication consists of InGaAsP MQWs with a thickness of 200 nm. The fabrication procedure includes four essential steps. Step 1: transferring pattern to resist by electron-beam lithography. Step 2: dry etching SiO2 by means of ICP, in which resist is used as mask. Step 3: dry etching MQWs through ICP, in which patterned SiO2 is used as mask. Step 4: removing SiO2 mask and InP substrate using wet-etching methods.
Extended Data Fig. 2 Nanolasing in a single unit cell of the moiré superlattice.
a, SEM image of the device. The orange hexagon highlights the single unit cell of the moiré superlattice for nanolasing. b, Light–light curve (green) and linewidth evolution curve (blue) of the single-cavity nanolaser. Circles, data; lines: guides to the eye. c, Normalized emission spectra near lasing threshold (Pth), which shows the linewidth narrowing of the lasing mode. Circles, data; lines, fitting. d,e, Spontaneous emission patterns of the device in real (d) and momentum (e) spaces. f,g, Lasing emission patterns in real (f) and momentum (g) spaces. h,i, Simulated emission patterns in real (h) and momentum (i) spaces. The lasing flatband mode exhibits a narrower bandwidth along the Γ–M (horizontal) direction compared with that along the Γ–K (vertical) direction (Extended Data Fig. 9), resulting in a more localized mode along the Γ–M direction (h). Consequently, this leads to a broader momentum distribution (i) according to Fourier transform. j, Polarization-resolved lasing emission spectra. The spectrum counts at 0° polarization are magnified by a factor of 20. k, Normalized lasing emission intensity as a function of the polarization angle. l, Intensity profiles along the dashed lines in g and i. Scale bars, 1.6 μm−1 (e,g,i).
Extended Data Fig. 3 Linewidth narrowing and photon emission statistics transition of the U-shaped moiré nanolaser array.
a, Linewidth evolution curve of the U-shaped moiré nanolaser array. Pth, lasing threshold; circles, data; line, guide to the eye. b, Normalized emission spectra near the lasing threshold (Pth), which shows the linewidth narrowing of the lasing mode. Circles, data; lines, fitting. c,d, Second-order intensity correlation function g(2)(τ) of the nanolaser array at 1.19Pth (c) and 2.24Pth (d). Near the lasing threshold (c), the emitted photons exhibit super-Poissonian light characteristics (g(2)(τ = 0) > 1). Above the lasing threshold (d), the photon emission statistics transition from super-Poissonian to Poissonian, indicating the emergence of coherent light emission (g(2)(τ = 0) = 1).
Extended Data Fig. 4 Phase distribution of the U-shaped moiré nanolaser obtained by three-dimensional full-wave simulation.
a, Hz field pattern of the U-shaped moiré nanolaser array. b, Time-resolved Hz field at the seven unit cells marked in a, indicating that all of them oscillate in phase. t, time; T, oscillation period.
Extended Data Fig. 5 Uniform emission polarization among all constituent nanolasers in the U-shaped nanolaser array.
a, Polarization-resolved lasing pattern of the U-shaped nanolaser array with a polarizer filter oriented at 90°. b, Polarization-resolved lasing pattern of the U-shaped nanolaser array with a polarizer filter oriented at 0°.
Extended Data Fig. 6 The relationship between patterns in real space, patterns in momentum space and the presence of flatband modes.
a, Simulated pattern of U-shaped nanolaser array observed in real space. b, Simulated pattern of U-shaped nanolaser array observed in momentum space. The patterns in a and b can be mutually transformed through Fourier transform. c, Band diagram superimposed with the momentum-space pattern depicted in b, which shows the eigenfrequency distribution of the lasing mode of the U-shaped nanolaser array determined by the dispersion relation.
Extended Data Fig. 7 U-shaped nanolaser array emitting without phase locking.
a,b, Lasing emission patterns of U-shaped nanolaser array emitting without phase locking in real (a) and momentum (b) space. Despite the U shape being well maintained in real space, the emission exhibits strong divergence in momentum space resulting from the lack of phase locking. Scale bar, 1.6 μm−1 (b). c, Corresponding lasing spectrum of the U-shaped nanolaser array emitting without phase locking.
Extended Data Fig. 8 Simulated patterns of the fundamental, first higher, second higher and third higher modes.
a–d, Simulated real-space patterns of the fundamental (a), first higher (b), second higher (c) and third higher (d) modes. e–h, Simulated momentum-space patterns of the fundamental (e), first higher (f), second higher (g) and third higher (h) modes. i–l, Hz field phase distributions of the fundamental (i), first higher (j), second higher (k) and third higher (l) modes. Insets in i–l, enlarged phase distributions in marked areas. In the fundamental mode, all constituent local nanocavities exhibit synchronized in-phase oscillation. In the higher-order modes, there exists a phase difference of π between any two adjacent regions separated by a node (intensity zero crossing). Scale bars, 1.6 μm−1 (e–h).
Extended Data Fig. 9 Three-dimensional full-wave-simulated band structure of the moiré nanolaser array.
The red and blue bands represent two dipole flatbands. The colour bar represents the corresponding weight of a flatband mode in two polarizations, namely, px and py.
Extended Data Fig. 10 Scalability of the moiré nanolaser array.
a,b, Real (a) and momentum (b) spaces lasing patterns of the large-scale moiré nanolaser array on SiO2 substrate. Scale bar, 1.6 μm−1 (b). c, Intensity profile along the dashed line in b. d, Spectrum of the entire moiré nanolaser array (top spectrum) and spatially resolved spectra from four individual unit cells marked in a.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
This file contains Supplementary Figs. 1–10 and Supplementary Table 1.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Luan, HY., Ouyang, YH., Zhao, ZW. et al. Reconfigurable moiré nanolaser arrays with phase synchronization. Nature 624, 282–288 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06789-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06789-9
This article is cited by
-
Twisted system makes nanolasers shine together
Nature (2023)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
