Plasmonic lasing of nanocavity embedding in metallic nanoantenna array

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Nanotechnology
• Optoelectronics

Background:

• Plasmonic nanolasers often exhibit high lasing thresholds due to subwavelength dimensions and poor optical pumping efficiency.
• A momentum mismatch between light and nanocavities contributes to inefficient optical pumping, a factor often overlooked.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a room-temperature, low-threshold plasmonic nanolaser.
• To address the challenge of high lasing thresholds in subwavelength plasmonic devices.
• To provide a robust, reproducible, and easily fabricated nanolaser design.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a cavity-embedded nanoantenna array design.
• Employed chemical-template lithography for fabrication.
• Characterized the device's mode volume (∼0.22(λ/2n)(3)) and lasing threshold (∼2.70MW/mm(2)).

Main Results:

• Achieved a room-temperature, low-threshold plasmonic nanolaser.
• Demonstrated a robust, reproducible, and easily fabricated device.
• Investigated lasing polarization and nanoantenna array functionality.

Conclusions:

• The cavity-embedded nanoantenna array design offers a new strategy for low-threshold plasmonic nanolasers.
• This approach overcomes limitations of poor optical pumping efficiency.
• The developed nanolasers hold promise for biological sensing and information technology applications.