Hahm Donghyo, Pinchetti Valerio, Livache Clément, Ahn Namyoung, Noh Jungchul, Li Xueyang, Du Jun, Wu Kaifeng, Klimov Victor I
Nanotechnology and Advanced Spectroscopy Team, C-PCS, Chemistry Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China.
Nat Mater. 2025 Jan;24(1):48-55. doi: 10.1038/s41563-024-02048-y. Epub 2024 Nov 22.
Present-day liquid-state lasers are based on organic dyes. Here we demonstrate an alternative class of liquid lasers that use solutions of colloidal quantum dots (QDs). Previous efforts to realize such devices have been hampered by the fast non-radiative Auger recombination of multicarrier states required for optical gain. Here we overcome this challenge by using type-(I + II) QDs, which feature a trion-like optical gain state with strongly suppressed Auger recombination. When combined with a Littrow optical cavity, static (non-circulated) solutions of these QDs exhibit stable lasing tunable from 634 nm to 575 nm. These results indicate the feasibility of technologically viable dye-like QD lasers that exhibit broad spectral tunability and, importantly, provide stable operation without the need for a circulation system-a standard attribute of traditional dye lasers. The latter opens the door to less complex and more compact devices that can be readily integrated with various optical and electro-optical systems. An additional advantage of these lasers is the wide range of potentially available wavelengths that can be selected by controlling the composition, size and structure of the QDs.
当今的液态激光器是基于有机染料的。在此，我们展示了另一类使用胶体量子点（QD）溶液的液体激光器。此前实现此类器件的努力受到了光学增益所需的多载流子态快速非辐射俄歇复合的阻碍。在此，我们通过使用（I + II）型量子点克服了这一挑战，这类量子点具有类似三重态的光学增益态，且俄歇复合受到强烈抑制。当与 Littrow 光学腔结合时，这些量子点的静态（非循环）溶液展现出从 634 nm 到 575 nm 可调谐的稳定激光发射。这些结果表明了技术上可行的类染料量子点激光器的可行性，这类激光器具有宽光谱可调谐性，重要的是，无需循环系统就能实现稳定运行——这是传统染料激光器的一个标准特性。后者为可轻松与各种光学和电光系统集成的更简单、更紧凑的器件打开了大门。这些激光器的另一个优点是，通过控制量子点的组成、尺寸和结构，可以选择广泛的潜在可用波长。
