Electrically driven nanobeam laser

The realization of lasers as small as possible has been one of the long-standing goals of the laser physics and quantum optics communities. Among multitudes of recent small cavities, the one-dimensional nanobeam cavity has been actively investigated as one of the most attractive candidates for effective photon confinement thanks to its simple geometry. However, the current injection into the ultra-small nano-resonator without critically degrading the quality factor remains still unanswered. Here we report an electrically driven, onedimensional, photonic-well, single-mode, room-temperature nanobeam laser whose footprint approaches the smallest possible value. The small physical volume of B4.6 0.61 0.28 mm3 (B8.2(l n 1)3) was realized through the introduction of a Gaussian-like photonic well made of only 11 air holes. In addition, a low threshold current of B5mA was observed from a three-cell nanobeam cavity at room temperature. The simple one-dimensional waveguide nature of the nanobeam enables straightforward integration with other photonic applications such as photonic integrated circuits and quantum information devices. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3822 OPEN