Inorganic and Hybrid Perovskite Based Laser Devices: A Review

Abstract

Inorganic and organic-inorganic (hybrid) perovskite semiconductor materials have attracted worldwide scientific attention and research effort as the new wonder semiconductor material in optoelectronics. Their excellent physical and electronic properties have been exploited to boost the solar cells efficiency beyond 23% and captivate their potential as competitors to the dominant silicon solar cells technology. However, the fundamental principles in Physics, dictate that an excellent direct band gap material for photovoltaic applications must be also an excellent light emitter candidate. This has been realized for the case of perovskite-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) but much less for the case of the respective laser devices. Here, the strides, exclusively in lasing, made since 2014 are presented for the first time. The solution processability, low temperature crystallization, formation of nearly defect free, nanostructures, the long range ambipolar transport, the direct energy band gap, the high spectral emission tunability over the entire visible spectrum and the almost 100% external luminescence efficiency show perovskite semiconductors' potential to transform the nanophotonics sector. The operational principles, the various adopted material and laser configurations along the future challenges are reviewed and presented in this paper.

Keywords: hybrid perovskites; inorganic perovskites; laser devices; stimulated emission.

Figure 1

Bar-plot showing the increasing number of published articles (red) and total citations (blue) containing the expressions “Halide Perovskite” and “Laser or Lasing” either in the title or in the abstract during the period 2013 and 2019. Source: Scopus bibliographic database (January 2019).

Figure 2

(a) The Fabry-Perot Laser Cavity Configuration; (b) The Whispering gallery mode cavity; (c) The Random Lasing; and (d) The single crystal Fabry-Perot Cavity. Reproduced with permission from Sutherland et al. [25], Nature Photonics; published by Macmillan Publishers, 2016.

Figure 3

(a) Lasing from a Fabry-Perot type Perovskite Laser. Reproduced with the Permission from Deschler et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. [26]; published by ACS Publications. (b) (i): Lasing from nanowire construction; its main emission characteristic from the two edges. (ii): Two of the characteristics of the onset of lasing operation, the nonlinear increase of the output intensity and the shrinking of the FWHM of the output above threshold point. Reproduced with the permission from Zhu et al., Nature Materials [27]; published by Macmillan Publishers Limited. (c) Whispering Gallery Mode Emission from perovskite microdiscs (i) below threshold and (ii) above threshold. Reproduced with the permission from Liao et al., Advanced Materials [28]; published by 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. (d) (i) the optical excitation of the samples and the detection of random lasing in different angles. This is one of the main characteristics of lasing due to provided optical feedback from scattering effects. In (ii) the variation of the lasing threshold as a function of excitation area on a logarithmic scale. In (iii) the principle of the random lasing and the scattering effects between the perovskite grain sizes. Reproduced with the permission of Shi et al. Journal of Materials Chemistry C [29]; published by Royal Society of Chemistry. (e) (i) Lasing from RPPs 2D perovskite nanowire arrays, the appearance of a threshold point characteristic to lasing; (ii) Lasing under pumping at 400 nm with a fluence 80 μJ/cm² and the demonstrating impressive stability these 2D systems demonstrate: lasing for more than six hours. Reproduced with the permission of Zhang et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. [30]; published by 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Figure 4

(a) Nonlinear increase of the output intensity beyond the laser threshold point; A spectral linewidth shrinking above threshold is also observed as a clear indication of the onset of the laser operation. (b) The transition from the spontaneous emission to stimulated emission is depicted on the reduction of the PL signal above threshold as the Time Resolved Photoluminescent measurements indicate. Reproduced with permission from Zhu et al. [27], Nature Materials; published by Nature Publishing Group, 2015. (c) Coarse Tunability of the emission laser light achieved through the halide constitution (controllable stoichiometry). Reproduced with the permission from Xing et al. [13], Nature Materials; published by 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited (d) Fine wavelength tuning using different grading periods in a DFB configuration: (i) amplified spontaneous emission spectrum and lasing spectra and (ii) calculated and measured Bragg wavelengths. Reproduced with permission from Brenner et al. [31], Applied Physics Letters; published by AIP Publishing.

Figure 5

(a) Single Mode Laser Operation at blue and red colour from CsPb(Br/Cl)₃ and CsPb(I/Br)₃ IPNCs under pump intensity of 38.2 and 30.5 µJ cm⁻², respectively. Reproduced with the permission from Wang et al. [63], Advanced Functional Materials; published by Wiley-VCH, 2017. (b) The transition from the spontaneous emission to stimulated emission is accompanied by a simultaneous non-linear increase of the Intensity above threshold and at the same time a shrieking of the emission spectral linewidth; in this figure the lasing behaviour of CsPbBr₃ NC film. Reproduced with permission from Tang et al. [70], Nano Energy; published by Elsevier, 2016. (c) Tunability of the emission PL light achieved through different composition. Reproduced with permission from Tang et al. [70], Nano Energy; published by Elsevier, 2016. (d) Dual Wavelength Lasing through structure of composition-graded CsPbBr_xI_3−x NW and the graded bandgap. Reproduced with permission from Huang et al. [62], Advanced Materials; published by Willey-VCH, 2018.