Laser emission with excitonic gain in a ZnO planar microcavity

The lasing operation of a ZnO planar microcavity under optical pumping is demonstrated from T=80 to 300 K. At the laser threshold, the cavity switches from the strong coupling to the weak coupling regime. A gain-related transition, which appears while still observing polariton branches and, thus, with stable excitons, is observed below 240 K. This shows that exciton scattering processes, typical of II-VI semiconductors, are involved in the gain process. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3593032]