title: Single-crystalline aluminum film for ultraviolet plasmonic nanolasers.
abstract: Significant advances have been made in the development of plasmonic devices in the past decade. Plasmonic nanolasers, which display interesting properties, have come to play an important role in biomedicine, chemical sensors, information technology, and optical integrated circuits. However, nanoscale plasmonic devices, particularly those operating in the ultraviolet regime, are extremely sensitive to the metal and interface quality. Thus, these factors have a significant bearing on the development of ultraviolet plasmonic devices. Here, by addressing these material-related issues, we demonstrate a low-threshold, high-characteristic-temperature metal-oxide-semiconductor ZnO nanolaser that operates at room temperature. The template for the ZnO nanowires consists of a flat single-crystalline Al film grown by molecular beam epitaxy and an ultrasmooth Al2O3 spacer layer synthesized by atomic layer deposition. By effectively reducing the surface plasmon scattering and metal intrinsic absorption losses, the high-quality metal film and the sharp interfaces formed between the layers boost the device performance. This work should pave the way for the use of ultraviolet plasmonic nanolasers and related devices in a wider range of applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronics Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Bo-Tsun
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Lighting and Energy Photonics, National Chiao Tung University, Tainan, Taiwan.|Department of Photonics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Hsun
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.affiliation: Department of Photonics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yen-Mo
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yi-Cheng
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, National Central University, Chungli, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wei-Jen
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Hsueh
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronics Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shih-Wei
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Photonics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tien-Chang
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan.|Institute of Optoelectronic Sciences, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tzy-Rong
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronics Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Sheng-Di
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Lin
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