Ultraviolet lasing action in ZnO nanosheets

We report room-temperature ultraviolet lasing action in large quantities of uniform multilayer ZnO nanosheets grown by a vapor-transport method via thermal evaporation of Zn powder. An excellent multimode lasing emission at a center wavelength of 390 nm with a mode linewidth less than 0.33 nm occurs above an excitation threshold of 8 mJ pulse(-1) cm(-2). The observed multimode lasing action may be attributed to microcavity effect and low concentration of defects in the nanosheets. We believe that the single-mode lasing emission can be obtained by growing completely uniform nanosheets. ZnO nanosheet is an attractive candidate as gain medium to realize ultraviolet semiconductor diode lasers.