Electrically Pumped Perovskite Lasers

Introduction

Electrically pumped lasers are considered a holy grail in the field of optoelectronics. Despite the success of lasers based on expensive epitaxially grown semiconductors, low-cost solution-processed semiconductors provide new opportunities to significantly expand the applications of lasers.

Opportunities with Low-Cost Semiconductors

On one hand, low-cost and scalable deposition can meet the increasing demand for using lasers in consumer electronics. On the other hand, solution-processed semiconductors can be easily processed into thin films, providing great promise to develop thin-film lasers which are required for highly integrated photonics chips in advanced applications.

Metal Halide Perovskites

A superstar in the family of solution-processed semiconductors is metal halide perovskites, which have shown great success in a range of optoelectronic applications. Especially, recent breakthroughs on optically pumped perovskite lasers and high-performance perovskite light-emitting diodes indicate great potential for developing perovskites into a new generation of materials for electrically pumped lasers.

Project Goals

This project has the ambitious goal to realize solution-processed electrically pumped perovskite lasers. I will take a holistic approach, where novel concepts are proposed to address critical challenges in the development of perovskite lasers.

Development of Gain Media

1. Both type-I and type-II perovskite quantum well heterostructures, which utilize fundamentally different mechanisms to reach low thresholds, will be developed as the gain media.
2. Edge-emitting devices based on these new perovskite gain media will then be coupled into rationally designed cavities for lasing actions.

Research Focus

At the core of the research is the synthesis of new perovskite materials, combined with advanced spectroscopic characterizations and device/cavity development. This project makes use of recent advances in perovskite optoelectronics to create a new paradigm for electrically pumped perovskite lasers and will open up new possibilities to revolutionize the current laser technology.