Special Issue on the 60th anniversary of the first laser-Series I: Microcavity Photonics-from fundamentals to applications

Shape-Dependent Optical Waveguides and Low-Threshold Lasers from Polymorphic Two-Dimensional Organic Single Crystals

Organic single crystals (OSCs) with uniform morphologies and highly ordered molecular aggregations are promising for high-performance optoelectronic devices, such as organic solid-state lasers (OSSLs), organic light-emitting transistors (OLETs), and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). However, manipulating OSC morphologies and aggregation is challenging. In this study, we synthesized two-dimensional (2D) OSCs of 4,4'-bis[(N-carbazole)styryl]biphenyl (BSBCz) in hexagonal and parallelogram microplate (H-MP and P-MP) forms. Both types exhibit H-aggregation in the 2D plate plane but with different molecular transition dipole moment (TDM) orientations. This leads to different photon coupling modes with H-MP and P-MP microcavities. H-MPs enable isotropic 2D-waveguiding, forming whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators, while P-MPs create unidirectional waveguiding, forming Fabry-Pérot mode (FP) resonators. These resonators can generate low-threshold laser emissions at 467 and 473 nm, respectively, and exhibit superior lasing stability with a half-life exceeding 2 h. Our BSBCz microplate OSCs are attractive candidates to combine controlled organic microcavities with photon transporting for realizing future integrated optoelectronic devices.

Whispering-Gallery Mode Optoplasmonic Microcavities: From Advanced Single-Molecule Sensors and Microlasers to Applications in Synthetic Biology

Optical microcavities, specifically, whispering-gallery mode (WGM) microcavities, with their remarkable sensitivity to environmental changes, have been extensively employed as biosensors, enabling the detection of a wide range of biomolecules and nanoparticles. To push the limits of detection down to the most sensitive single-molecule level, plasmonic nanorods are strategically introduced to enhance the evanescent fields of WGM microcavities. This advancement of optoplasmonic WGM sensors allows for the detection of single molecules of a protein, conformational changes, and even atomic ions, marking significant contributions in single-molecule sensing. This Perspective discusses the exciting research prospects in optoplasmonic WGM sensing of single molecules, including the study of enzyme thermodynamics and kinetics, the emergence of thermo-optoplasmonic sensing, the ultrasensitive single-molecule sensing on WGM microlasers, and applications in synthetic biology.

High side-mode suppression ratio with a Vernier effect single-mode laser using triple coupled microrings

The development of single-mode lasers with a high side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) is challenging but highly desirable for integrated photonics devices and long-distance communications due to their high spectral purity and stability. Here, we demonstrate a single-mode laser with a high side-mode suppression ratio based on size-mismatched triple-coupled microrings. With the exact engineering of several key parameters of the structure like air gap and radii of microrings for controlling the free spectral range (FSR), a predominant mode is selected to lase in amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) of the gain material and all side and high order modes are suppressed by Vernier effect. In this work, we show that a single-mode operation is efficiently generated with an improved side-mode suppression ratio of over 20 dB in a three-ring-coupled microcavity laser. The single-frequency output persists for a wide power range. The theoretical calculations and numerical simulations' results confirm the validity of the experimental results. Our structural engineering creates new opportunities in a variety of frontier applications in single-mode lasers and high-quality sensors.