Ultra-thin size-controllable surface plasmon polariton laser by PDMS-assisted imprinting

Plasmonic laser has great potential to overcome the optical diffraction limit, playing a crucial role in advancing nanophotonics and nanoelectronics for on-chip integration. However, current plasmonic lasers face several challenges, such as the difficulty in controlling nanowire size, disordered arrangement, and complicated fabrication process. Herein, ultra-thin gain media for plasmonic lasers below the cutoff size of the photonic mode are prepared using the PDMS-assisted imprinting. This method enables precise control over the size of the perovskite nanowire, with the minimum size achievable being 60 nm. As a result, the plasmonic lasing is achieved from the CsPbBr3 nanowire-based device with a threshold as low as ~49.13 μJ cm-2 and a Quality Factor (Q) of 1803 at room temperature, demonstrating its capability for achieving high-quality lasing. Meanwhile, a dual-pumping time-resolved fluorescence study suggests that the radiative recombination lifetime of CsPbBr3 nanowires is shortened by a factor of 10 due to the Purcell effect, confirming the plasmonic effect exhibited by the device. Furthermore, a plasmonic laser array is developed using this method, demonstrating the applicability of the imprinting method in complex graphic fabrication. This breakthrough provides a solution for the application of plasmonic laser arrays in optoelectronic integration.