Stimulated emission from ZnO thin films with high optical gain and low loss

Abdel-Sattar Gadallah (1, 2, 3) , Komla Nomenyo (1) , Christophe Couteau (1, 4) , Dave J. Rogers (5) , Gilles Lerondel (1)

1 LNIO - Laboratoire de Nanotechnologie et d'Instrumentation Optique
2 Cairo University
3 NILES - National Institute of Laser Enhanced Sciences
4 CINTRA - CNRS International - NTU - Thales Research Alliance
5 Nanovation SARL

Stimulated surface- and edge-emissions were investigated for ZnO thin films grown epitaxially by pulsed laser deposition. The lasing threshold was 0.32 MW/cm2 for surface pumping and 0.5 MW/cm2 for edge pumping, which is significantly lower than thresholds observed previously. A modified variable stripe length method was used to measure the gain, which was 1369 cm−1 for the N-band emission. Losses were measured using the shifting excitation spot method and values of 6.2 cm−1 and 6.3 cm−1 were found for the N-band and P-band, respectively. The measured gain and loss were the highest and lowest (respectively) ever reported for ZnO films.

Keywords: Metal oxides; Pulsed laser deposition; Chemical elements; Piezoelectric films; Band emission; Doppler effect; Excitons; Epitaxy; Laser theory; Thin films

Domains: Chemical Physics [physics.chem-ph]

Abdel-Sattar Gadallah, Komla Nomenyo, Christophe Couteau, Dave J. Rogers, Gilles Lerondel. Stimulated emission from ZnO thin films with high optical gain and low loss. Applied Physics Letters, 2013, 102 (17), pp.171105. ⟨10.1063/1.4803081⟩. ⟨hal-02448866⟩