Long life Perovskite Nanoplatelet Lasers with high quality factor enabled through engineering degradation pathways

MAPbI3 perovskite has attracted widespread interests for developing low-cost near infrared semiconductor gain media. However, it faces the instability issue under operation conditions, which remains a critical challenge. It is found that the instability of the MAPbI3 nanoplatelet laser comes from the thermal-induced-degradation progressing from the surface defects towards neighboring regions. By using PbI2 passivation, the defect-initiated degradation is significantly suppressed and the nanoplatelet degrades in a layer-by-layer way, enabling the MAPbI3 laser sustain for 4500 s (2.7×107 pulses), which is almost 3 times longer than that of the nanoplatelet laser without passivation. Meanwhile, the PbI2 passivated MAPbI3 nanoplatelet laser with the nanoplatelet cavity displaying a maximum quality factor up to ~7800, the highest reported for all MAPbI3 nanoplatelet cavities. Furthermore, a high stability MAPbI3 nanoplatelet laser that can last for 8500 s (5.1×107 pulses) is demonstrated based on a dual passivation strategy, by retarding the defect-initiated degradation and surface-initiated degradation, simultaneously. This work provides in-depth insights for understanding the operating degradation of perovskite lasers and the dual passivation strategy paves the way for developing high stability near infrared semiconductor laser media.

Frequency division using a soliton-injected semiconductor gain-switched frequency comb

With optical spectral marks equally spaced by a frequency in the microwave or the radio frequency domain, optical frequency combs have been used not only to synthesize optical frequencies from microwave references but also to generate ultralow-noise microwaves via optical frequency division. Here, we combine two compact frequency combs, namely, a soliton microcomb and a semiconductor gain-switched comb, to demonstrate low-noise microwave generation based on a novel frequency division technique. Using a semiconductor laser that is driven by a sinusoidal current and injection-locked to microresonator solitons, our scheme transfers the spectral purity of a dissipative soliton oscillator into the subharmonic frequencies of the microcomb repetition rate. In addition, the gain-switched comb provides dense optical spectral emissions that divide the line spacing of the soliton microcomb. With the potential to be fully integrated, the merger of the two chipscale devices may profoundly facilitate the wide application of frequency comb technology.