Research progress and applications of semiconductor nanolasers and plasmonic nanolasers

The laser technology is a frontier and practical subject which has been widely studied and is developing rapidly in the recent years. Nano lasers, as an interdisciplinary subject of optics and nanotechnology, has brought new excellent properties to the lasers and is therefore attracting the researchers' attention. The miniaturization of the optical devices has always been one of the main goals pursued by the academic communities and the industry. The most immediate benefits of the reduced material scale are the ability to integrate more tightly with other devices and the lower power consumption. Furthermore, the nano lasers' merits of great energy-efficiency, fast modulation speeds, and reduced lasing thresholds enables it to be applied in a variety of fields. Additionally, once the nano lasers are wavelength-scale in size, they can simultaneously localize electromagnetic fields in time, space, and frequency at optical frequencies, which is an innovative advancement. In this article, the inherent advantages and the recent research progress of the semiconductor nano lasers and plasmonic nano lasers will be introduced. Then the applications of nano lasers in integrated optical interconnects, sensing, and biological detecting are introduced and analyzed. The current scientific and engineering challenges and future development directions of nano lasers are also emphasized and discussed.