Electrically pumped surface-emitting amplified spontaneous emission from colloidal quantum dots

Fengshou Tian; Tianhong Zhou; Xuanyu Zhang; Rui Chen; Shuming Chen

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-01972-1

Your Location：

Home >

Browse articles >

Electrically pumped surface-emitting amplified spontaneous emission from colloidal quantum dots

Original Articles

- Electrically pumped surface-emitting amplified spontaneous emission from colloidal quantum dots
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 14, Issue 10, Pages: 3012-3021(2025)
- Affiliations：
  
  State Key Laboratory of Quantum Functional Materials, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
- Author bio：
  
  Shuming Chen (chen.sm@sustech.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-01972-1
  CLC：
- Received：12 March 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-07-13，
  
  Accepted：21 July 2025，
  
  Published Online：19 August 2025，
  
  Published：31 October 2025
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Tian, F. S. et al. Electrically pumped surface-emitting amplified spontaneous emission from colloidal quantum dots. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 3012-3021 (2025).
DOI：

Tian, F. S. et al. Electrically pumped surface-emitting amplified spontaneous emission from colloidal quantum dots. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 3012-3021 (2025). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-01972-1.

摘要

Abstract

Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) are promising gain materials for realizing solution-processable

wavelength-tunable and low-cost laser diodes. However

achieving electrically pumped amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in QDs

a prerequisite for lasing

is hampered by the low net optical gain and low current injection of the diodes. Here we demonstrate electrically pumped and surface-emitting ASE from QDs by electro-thermal-optically co-designing a quantum-dot light-emitting diode (QLED) with high net optical gain and high current injection. By developing a top-emitting cavity featuring a Ag/indium-zinc-oxide (IZO) bottom reflective electrode and a IZO/Ag top semi-transparent electrode

the QD emission is effectively resonated; moreover

not only are the surface plasmon polariton losses induced by the metallic electrodes completely eliminated

but also the optical field can be confined primarily within the QDs

resulting in a reduction in loss and a 2-fold enhancement in gain. As a result

the QLED exhibits surface-emitting ASE with a threshold of 10 μJ cm

−2

when pumped by a 100 fs laser at 77 K. By building the QLED directly on a Si heat sink and driving the QLED with an ns-pulsed current source

the Joule heat is effectively dissipated

allowing the QLED to operate stably even at a high current of 2000 A cm

−2

. At 153 K and an injection current of 94 A cm

−2

the QLED demonstrates surface-emitting ASE with strong directionality

high intensity and narrow bandwidth. The developed QLED

capable of generating surface-emitting ASE

paves the way for the development of QD based vertical cavity surface-emitting laser diodes.

关键词

Keywords

references

Karl, M. et al. Flexible and ultra-lightweight polymer membrane lasers. Nat. Commun. 9 , 1525 (2018)..

Sandanayaka, A. S. D. et al. Indication of current-injection lasing from an organic semiconductor. Appl. Phys. Express 12 , 061010 (2019)..

Jia, Y. F. et al. Continuous-wave lasing in an organic–inorganic lead halide perovskite semiconductor. Nat. Photonics 11 , 784–788 (2017)..

Qin, C. J. et al. Stable room-temperature continuous-wave lasing in quasi-2D perovskite films. Nature 585 , 53–57 (2020)..

Elkhouly, K. et al. Electrically assisted amplified spontaneous emission in perovskite light-emitting diodes. Nat. Photonics 18 , 132–138 (2024)..

Fan, F. J. et al. Continuous-wave lasing in colloidal quantum dot solids enabled by facet-selective epitaxy. Nature 544 , 75–79 (2017)..

Lim, J., Park, Y. S. & Klimov, V. I. Opti cal gain in colloidal quantum dots achieved with direct-current electrical pumping. Nat. Mater. 17 , 42–49 (2018)..

Jung, H. et al. Two-band optical gain and ultrabright electroluminescence from colloidal quantum dots at 1000 A cm −2 . Nat. Commun. 13 , 3734 (2022)..

Roh, J. et al. Optically pumped colloidal-quantum-dot lasing in LED-like devices with an integrated optical cavity. Nat. Commun. 11 , 271 (2020)..

Ahn, N. et al. Optically excited lasing in a cavity-based, high-current-density quantum dot electroluminescent device. Adv. Mater. 35 , 2206613 (2023)..

Ahn, N. et al. Electrically driven amplified spontaneous emission from colloidal quantum dots. Nature 617 , 79–85 (2023)..

Xie, W. Q. et al. On-chip integrated quantum-dot–silicon-nitride microdisk lasers. Adv. Mater. 29 , 1604866 (2017)..

Cegielski, P. J. et al. Monolithically integrated perovskite semiconductor lasers on silicon photonic chips by scalable top-down fabrication. Nano Lett. 18 , 6915–6923 (2018)..

Dai, X. L. et al. Solution-processed, high-performance light-emitting diodes based on quantum dots. Nature 515 , 96–99 (2014)..

Shen, H. B. et al. Visible quantum dot light-emitting diodes with simultaneous high brightness and efficiency. Nat. Photonics 13 , 192–197 (2019)..

Kim, T. et al. Efficient and stable blue quantum dot light-emitting diode. Nature 586 , 385–389 (2020)..

Park, Y. S. et al. Colloidal quantum dot lasers. Nat. Rev. Mater. 6 , 382–401 (2021)..

Jung, H., Ahn, N. & Klimov, V. I. Prospects and challenges of colloidal quantum dot laser diodes. Nat. Photonics 15 , 643–655 (2021)..

Park, Y. S. et al. Effect of auger recombination on lasing in heterostructured quantum dots with engineered core/shell interfaces. Nano Lett. 15 , 7319–7328 (2015)..

Sun, Y. Z. et al. Investigation on thermally induced efficiency roll-off: toward efficient and ultrabright quantum- dot light-emitting diodes. ACS Nano 13 , 11433–11442 (2019)..

Yoshida, K., Nakanotani, H. & Adachi, C. Effect of Joule heating on transient current and electroluminescence in p-i-n organic light-emitting diodes under pulsed voltage operation. Org. Electron. 31 , 287–294 (2016)..

Pan, G. Z. et al. Harnessing the capabilities of VCSELs: unlocking the potential for advanced integrated photonic devices and systems. Light Sci. Appl. 13 , 229 (2024)..

Klimov, V. I. Multicarrier interactions in semiconductor nanocrystals in relation to the phenomena of Auger recombination and carrier multiplication. Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 5 , 285–316 (2014)..

Su, Q., Chen, Z. N. & Chen, S. M. Tracing the electron transport behavior in quantum-dot light-emitting diodes via single photon counting technique. Nat. Commun. 15 , 8150 (2024)..

Zhao, H. N. et al. Stable blue phosphorescent organic LEDs that use polariton-enhanced Purcell effects. Nature 626 , 300–305 (2024)..

Views

Downloads

CSCD

Alert me when the article has been cited

Submit

Tools

Publicity Resources

No data

Related Author

No data

Related Institution

No data

⁰