Nanowires/microfiber hybrid structure multicolor laser

Abstract

We demonstrate a compact hybrid structure red-green-ultraviolet three-color laser consisting of three distinct semiconductor nanowires (CdSe, CdS and ZnO) attached to a silica microfiber, which is pumped by 355 nm wavelength laser pulses. The exciting of the nanowires and the collection of the photoluminescence (PL) are implemented by means of evanescent coupling through the same silica microfiber. When pump energy higher than 1.3 microJ, three spatially and spectrally distinct lasing groups can be measured at the same output port simultaneously. The approach can be extended to other materials to produce hybrid lasers that cover ultraviolet to near infrared spectral regions.

Nanowire Lasers

“…Finally, Ding et al proposed an interesting approach to broaden the range of emission wavelengths: They coated an optical microfiber with three different types of nanowires (ZnO, CdS, and CdSe), thus achieving lasing at 391, 519, and 743 nm simultaneously. Although the relatively low threshold of 1.3 µJ appeared promising, other limiting effects (e.g., reabsorption) will likely limit application of this type of structure to white light emission with no controlled tunability [22].…”

A monolithic white laser

“…M ulti-colour or multi-wavelength lasers with a wavelength span beyond the capability of a single laser material have been a subject of great interest in recent years [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] , with the realization of white lasers as the ultimate goal. In fact, lasers that span the full visible spectrum, particularly the red, green and blue (RGB) colours, are particularly useful for laser lighting 10,11 , fullcolour laser imaging and display 12,13 , biological and chemical sensing 14,15 , as well as on-chip wavelength-division multiplexing 16,17 .…”

Optical microfibers and nanofibers

“…Benefitting from the high-quality cavity of the MNF knot, the lasing threshold of the ZnO nanowire was as low as 0.2 μJ/pulse, which is much lower than that of a freestanding ZnO nanowire. It is also noticeable that, by attaching three distinct semiconductor nanowires (CdSe, CdS and ZnO) to a silica MNF, Ding et al demonstrated a compact hybrid-structure red-green-ultraviolet three-color laser in a single MNF [33].…”

“…(2) Strong evanescent field Strong evanescent field offers strong near-field interaction between the MNF and its surroundings, making the MNF highly favorable for optical sensing [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] and evanescent coupling between the MNF and other waveguides (e.g., a semiconductor [33,34], metal [35,36] nanowire or planar waveguide [37]) or a substrate [30,35,38,39]. Based on the high-efficiency evanescent coupling, a variety of optical components or devices (e.g., loop and knots resonators [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51], lasers [52][53][54][55][56][57][58], and sensors [21][22][23][24][25][26][27]…”