Sub-micron single-particle perovskite plasmonic nanolasers at room temperature

Abstract: Plasmonic nanolasers have received a substantial interest for their promising applications in integrated photonics, optical sensing, and biomedical imaging. To date, a room-temperature plasmonic nanolaser, submicron in all dimensions, remains elusive in the visible regime due to high metallic losses. Here, we demonstrate single-particle lasing around 2.3 eV with full-submicron, cesium lead bromide perovskite (CsPbBr3) crystals atop polymer-coated gold substrates at room temperature. With a large number (~100) of devices in total, we systematically study the lasing action of plasmonic test and photonic control groups. The achieved smallest plasmonic laser was 0.56 micrometer x 0.58 micrometer x 0.32 micrometer in size, ten-fold smaller than that of our smallest photonic laser. Key elements to efficient plasmonic lasing are identified as enhanced optical gain by the Purcell effect, long carrier diffusivity, a large spontaneous emission factor, and a high group index. Our results shed light on three-dimensional miniaturization of plasmonic lasers.