Semiconductor lasers articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors demonstrate a laser system that can directly output soliton microcombs, with high power efficiency and reconfigurability, paving the way for communication, computing, and metrology based on integrated photonics.

    • Jingwei Ling
    • , Zhengdong Gao
    •  & Qiang Lin

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    I argue that a surface emitting laser that remains single mode irrespective of its size, a scale-invariant laser, should of necessity also waste light at the edge. This is a fundamental departure from the Schawlow-Townes two-mirror strategy that keeps light away from mirrors and edges to preserve gain and minimize loss. The strategy was implemented in the recent discovery of the Berkeley Surface Emitting Laser (BerkSEL).

    • Boubacar Kanté

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors showcase an innovative anti-reflective vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (AR-VCSEL) that achieves low divergence and maintains a single-mode lasing. The 6-junction AR-VCSEL array demonstrates low divergence from 8° to 16° (D86) and tripled brightness compared to conventional counterparts. The AR-VCSEL offers an excellent avenue for long-distance LiDARs.

    • Cheng Zhang
    • , Huijie Li
    •  & Dong Liang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solid-state spatio-spectral coherent light detection and ranging system is proposed based on flutter-wavelength-swept laser for real-time four-dimensional coherent imaging over extended measurable distance even in challenging environments.

    • Dawoon Jeong
    • , Hansol Jang
    •  & Chang-Seok Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Topological lasers often suffer from low directionality, and/or complex design requirements hindering operation at small wavelengths. Here, by using a few monolayers of perovskite quantum dots, the authors demonstrate a lithography-free, vertical-emitting, single-mode laser emitting in the green.

    • Jingyi Tian
    • , Qi Ying Tan
    •  & Cesare Soci

  • Article
    | Open Access

    THz integrate light sources represent an important building blocks for various applications. Here the authors report an electrically driven topological laser based on photonic Majorana zero mode that can convert electricity directly into THz single-mode laser with topologically nontrivial beams.

    • Song Han
    • , Yunda Chua
    •  & Qi Jie Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Generation and control of short pulse is desired for ultrafast applications. Here the authors demonstrate ultrafast pulse generation using self-evolving photonic crystal that can transition from high loss to low loss state based on dynamic dispersion compensation.

    • Takuya Inoue
    • , Ryohei Morita
    •  & Susumu Noda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors demonstrate chip-scale high-peak-power lasers by vertical integration of semiconductor and solid state laser gain mediums to reach the same maturity level as existing semiconductor lasers, which are suitable for miniaturization and cost-effective mass production.

    • Jianglin Yue
    • , Kenji Tanaka
    •  & Masanao Kamata

  • Article
    | Open Access

    On-Chip integration of laser systems led to impressive development in many field of application like LIDAR or AR/VR to cite a few. Here the authors harness Pockels effect in an integrated semiconductor platform achieving fast on-chip configurability of a narrow linewidth laser.

    • Mingxiao Li
    • , Lin Chang
    •  & Qiang Lin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The work harnesses principles of spatial state tomography to fully characterise an optical beam in space, time, spectrum, and polarisation. Analysis of the output of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser illustrates the technique’s capabilities.

    • Martin Plöschner
    • , Marcos Maestre Morote
    •  & Joel Carpenter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Low threshold lasing is widely required, especially for portable systems. Here the authors design a circular subwavelength metallic aperture in a QCL to shape its phase front and control diffraction losses, which in turn allows a lower threshold dissipation power, enabling the fabrication of shorter cavities.

    • Zhixin Wang
    • , Filippos Kapsalidis
    •  & Jérôme Faist

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Achieving high output power and low noise integrated lasers is a major challenge. Here the authors experimentally demonstrate integrated lasers from a Si/SiN heterogeneous platform that shows Hertz-level linewidth, paving the way toward fully integrating low-noise silicon nitride photonics in volume using real devices for lasing.

    • Chao Xiang
    • , Joel Guo
    •  & John E. Bowers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Producing pulses in the mid-IR often requires bulky sources and has been inaccessible with compact and versatile quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). Here, the authors demonstrate actively mode-locked, mid-IR QCL operation at room temperature.

    • Johannes Hillbrand
    • , Nikola Opačak
    •  & Benedikt Schwarz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Though reducing non-emissive triplet excited-states using quenchers effectively improves organic semiconductor laser diode (OSLD) performance, existing quenchers are not suitable for devices. Here, the authors designed a solid-state triplet quencher for OSLD under optical and electrical excitation.

    • Van T. N. Mai
    • , Viqar Ahmad
    •  & Shih-Chun Lo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Beam scanning lasers are required for systems for smart mobility, object recognition, and adaptive illuminations. The authors demonstrate dually modulated photonic crystals, wherein the positions and sizes of the photonic-crystal lattice points are modulated simultaneously, to achieve mechanical-free, 2D beam scanning.

    • Ryoichi Sakata
    • , Kenji Ishizaki
    •  & Susumu Noda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Colloidal quantum wells are highly promising for applications of solution-processed lasers, but their performance is limited by multi-excitonic nature of the materials. Here, the authors demonstrate optical gain in graded alloy core/shell CdSe/CdS@CdZnS quantum wells at less than one exciton per particle resulting in ultralow thresholds.

    • Nima Taghipour
    • , Savas Delikanli
    •  & Hilmi Volkan Demir

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fabricating semiconductor photonic lasers based on III-V materials are challenging because of the material mismatch with silicon. Here the authors monolithically grow quantum-dot-based photonic crystal membrane lasers directly on an on-axis silicon substrate.

    • Taojie Zhou
    • , Mingchu Tang
    •  & Huiyun Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Germanium (based) lasers are a promising route towards a fully CMOS-compatible light source, key to the further development of silicon photonics. Here, the authors realize lasing from strained germanium microbridges up to 100 K, finding a quantum efficiency close to 100%.

    • F. T. Armand Pilon
    • , A. Lyasota
    •  & H. Sigg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Terahertz frequency combs are highly desired for applications in precision measurements, sensing, spectroscopy and metrology. Here the authors demonstrate the room-temperature chip-based THz frequency comb using nonlinear frequency generation from a mid-infrared quantum cascade laser comb.

    • Quanyong Lu
    • , Feihu Wang
    •  & Manijeh Razeghi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Semiconductor-core optical fibres are of interest for their non-linear optical and electro-optical properties. Here, GaSb/Si composite-core optical fibres were fabricated and a CO2 laser was used to facilitate controlled GaSb segregation within the silicon. This has implications for embedding light sources in IR-transmitting fibers

    • S. Song
    • , K. Lønsethagen
    •  & U. J. Gibson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In order to develop perovskite-based lasers and LEDs for applications, their potential as room-temperature CW-pumped gain materials has to be established. Here, Brenner et al. demonstrate cw-pumped amplified spontaneous emission up to 120 K from a hybrid organic-inorganic halide perovskite layer.

    • Philipp Brenner
    • , Ofer Bar-On
    •  & Uli Lemmer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lead-halide perovskite are an interesting material platform for light-emitting devices but the underlying lasing mechanism is still disputed. Here, Schlaus et al. use time-resolved spectroscopy of CsPbBr3 nanowires to show that lasing results from stimulated emission of an electron-hole plasma.

    • Andrew P. Schlaus
    • , Michael S. Spencer
    •  & X.-Y. Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While the sharp emission lines of microlasers are advantageous for cell tagging, their relatively large size can impede cell migration and behavior. Here, Fikouras et al. develop nano-sized lasers that can readily tag and track various types of cells, including through narrow constrictions.

    • Alasdair H. Fikouras
    • , Marcel Schubert
    •  & Malte C. Gather

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single-mode, tuneable monolithic semiconductor lasers are important light sources for integrated photonics. Here, Kundu et al. observe the switch-on dynamics and mode competition of a terahertz quantum cascade laser and explain the behaviour with a carrier and photon transport model.

    • Iman Kundu
    • , Feihu Wang
    •  & A. Giles Davies

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) beams have great potential for multiplexing signals in optical communication, but creating a compact source is challenging. The authors integrate a chip-scale optical vortex emitter and DFB laser into a single monolithic device for direct electrically pumped production of OAM beams.

    • Juan Zhang
    • , Changzheng Sun
    •  & Siyuan Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Topological effects, first observed in condensed matter physics, are now also studied in optical systems, extending the scope to active topological devices. Here, Zhao et al. combine topological physics with non-Hermitian photonics, demonstrating a topological microlaser on a silicon platform.

    • Han Zhao
    • , Pei Miao
    •  & Liang Feng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Since the first proposal for plasmonic nanolasers there has been a debate about the limitations on performance posed by the inherent losses in metallic systems. Here, the authors compare over 100 plasmonic and photonic laser devices and find sub-wavelength plasmonic lasers to be advantageous.

    • Suo Wang
    • , Xing-Yuan Wang
    •  & Ren-Min Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integrating group IV lasing devices into technologically relevant CMOS architectures has proven challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate low-threshold lasing, which is important for potential electronic and photonic circuits, using strained germanium nanowires as the gain material.

    • Shuyu Bao
    • , Daeik Kim
    •  & Donguk Nam

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-dimensional materials have recently emerged as interesting materials for optoelectronic applications. Here, Shang et al. demonstrate two-dimensional semiconductor activated vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers where both the gain material and the lasing characteristics are two-dimensional.

    • Jingzhi Shang
    • , Chunxiao Cong
    •  & Ting Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Colloidal nanocrystals are a promising material for easy-to-fabricate nanolasers, but suffer from high threshold powers. Here, the authors combine colloidal quantum wells with a photonic-crystal cavity into a stable, continuous-wave room-temperature nanolaser with a threshold below one microwatt

    • Zhili Yang
    • , Matthew Pelton
    •  & Edo Waks

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The breaking of parity-time symmetric gain and loss profiles can be used to achieve single-mode lasing in coupled microring resonators. Here, Liuet al. show that this effect can be electrically controlled with a tunable lasing wavelength and strong sidemode suppression.

    • Weilin Liu
    • , Ming Li
    •  & Jianping Yao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integrated plasmonic sources are crucial in the development of plasmonic circuitry. Here, McPolin et al. show that vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers can be employed as an on-chip, electrically pumped source or detector of plasmonic signals and also demonstrate waveguiding and frequency conversion on this platform.

    • Cillian P. T. McPolin
    • , Jean-Sebastien Bouillard
    •  & Anatoly V. Zayats

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chimera states are a class of self-organized solutions of high-dimensional networks with non-local and symmetry breaking coupling. Here the authors study the chimera patterns generated in a non-linear optical setup and uncover the transition between chimera orders as a pattern across clusters of chaoticity.

    • Laurent Larger
    • , Bogdan Penkovsky
    •  & Yuri Maistrenko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical metrology applications require lasers with high spectral purity but on-chip devices with sub-100 Hz linewidth are yet to be realized. Here, Liang et al.present a heterogeneously integrated, chip-scale semiconductor laser with 30 Hz integral linewidth and sub-Hz instantaneous linewidth.

    • W. Liang
    • , V. S. Ilchenko
    •  & L. Maleki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Time delays in feedback loops and connections in dynamical systems and complex networks can depend on the state of the system, but these state-dependent delays are poorly understood. Here, the authors use a photonic system to characterize the switching between two loops with different delay times.

    • Jade Martínez-Llinàs
    • , Xavier Porte
    •  & Ingo Fischer

  • Article |

    Solution-processed blue lasers are used in many applications such as spectroscopy or material processing. Here, the authors demonstrate a borane solution-based blue laser that offers a high efficiency and a photostability that is superior to commercial laser dyes.

    • Luis Cerdán
    • , Jakub Braborec
    •  & Michael G. S. Londesborough

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