Upconversion Plasmonic Lasing from an Organolead Trihalide Perovskite Nanocrystal with Low Threshold

The understanding of nonlinear light-matter interactions at the nanoscale has fueled worldwide interest in upconversion emission for imaging, lasing, and sensing. Upconversion lasers with anti-Stokes-type emission with various designs have been reported. However, reducing the volume and lasing threshold of such lasers to the nanoscale level is a fundamental photonics challenge. Here, we demonstrate that the upconversion efficiency can be improved by exploiting single-mode upconversion lasing from a single organo-lead halide perovskite nanocrystal in a resonance-adjustable plasmonic nanocavity. This upconversion plasmonic nanolaser has a very low lasing threshold (10 mu J cm(-2)) and a calculated ultrasmall mode volume (similar to 0.06 lambda(3)) at 6 K. To provide the unique feature for lasing action, a temporal coherence signature of the upconversion plasmonic nanolasing was determined by measuring the second-order correlation function. The localized-electromagnetic-field confinement can be tailored in titanium nitride resonance-adjustable nanocavities, enhancing the pump-photon absorption and upconverted photon emission rate to achieve lasing. The proof-of-concept results significantly expand the performance of upconversion nanolasers, which are useful in applications such as on-chip, coherent, nonlinear optics, information processing, data storage, and sensing.

Automated summary

The study demonstrates the improvement of upconversion efficiency and reduction of lasing threshold using single-mode upconversion lasing in a plasmonic nanocavity. This breakthrough in nanolaser technology has significant implications for various applications in photonics and nanotechnology.