Achievement

An interdisciplinary research team led by IGERT faculty Ken Shih including trainee Charlotte Sanders, other UT faculty, graduate students, and 2 international collaboration groups in Taiwan and China, have developed ‘Plasmonic Nanolaser Using Epitaxially Grown Silver Film.” This is the first low-threshold, continuous-wave (CW) operation of a green nanolaser based on surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (SPASER). The subdiffraction plasmonic cavity is formed between an atomically smooth epitaxial Ag film and a single optically pumped InGaN@GaN core-shell nanorod acting as the gain medium. The atomic smoothness of the metallic film is crucial for reducing the modal volume and plasmonic losses, thereby enabling CW operation with an ultralow power threshold (~100 nW for a single nanorod) above liquid nitrogen temperature. Bimodal lasing with similar pumping thresholds was experimentally observed, and polarization. The paper was reviewed positively by Science.