Abstract

The reduction in the size of semiconductor lasers has opened a path for future on-chip light sources for communications and sensing applications [1]. Howevertheir minimum size is limited by the classical diffraction limit of light. Research has focused on surface plasmon based lasers to circumvent this limitdue to their nature of mixing light and electrons at the metal surface and thus generating intense optical localization [2]. Hybrid plasmonic nanowire lasers are of great interest as they allow mode sizes as small as 2/400are simple to fabricateand allow a strong field confinement [3]. Until nowlasing from sub wavelength semiconductor nanowires has only been achieved at cryogenic temperatures. In this workwe present the first room temperature λ hybrid-plasmonic semiconductor nanowire laser operating at UV frequencies. We show that ZnO nanowires sitting on a Silver substrateemitting at 385 nm at room temperaturegenerate lasing surface plasmons very close the surface plasmon frequency.

© 2013 IEEE