A Northwestern University research team has found a way to
manufacture single laser devices that are the size of a virus particle and that
operate at room temperature. These plasmonic nanolasers could be readily
integrated into silicon-based photonic devices, all-optical circuits and
nanoscale biosensors.
Reducing the size of photonic and electronic elements is
critical for ultra-fast data processing and ultra-dense information storage.
The miniaturization of a key, workhorse instrument -- the laser -- is no
exception.
The results are published in the journal Nano Letters.