Abstract
It is an important challenge to reduce the power consumption and size of lasers, but progress has been impeded by quantum noise overwhelming the coherent radiation at reduced power levels. Thus, despite considerable progress in microscale and nanoscale lasers, such as photonic crystal lasers, metallic lasers and plasmonic lasers, the coherence length remains very limited. Here we show that a bound state in the continuum based on Fano interference can effectively quench quantum fluctuations. Although fragile in nature, this unusual state redistributes photons such that the effect of spontaneous emission is suppressed. Based on this concept, we experimentally demonstrate a microscopic laser with a linewidth that is more than 20 times smaller than existing microscopic lasers and show that further reduction by several orders of magnitude is feasible. These findings pave the way for numerous applications of microscopic lasers and point to new opportunities beyond photonics.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Nature Photonics |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| Pages (from-to) | 758-764 |
| ISSN | 1749-4885 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank K. S. Mathiesen for assistance with sample fabrication and characterization and M. Xiong for inductively coupled plasma etching optimization and assistance with sample characterization. This work was supported by the Danish National Research Foundation through NanoPhoton – Center for Nanophotonics (grant no. DNRF147), the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant no. 834410 Fano) and Villum Fonden though the NATEC Center (grant no. 8692).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.