Room-Temperature Continuous-Wave Operation of Organometal Halide Perovskite Lasers

Solution-processed organic–inorganic lead halide perovskites have recently emerged as promising gain media for tunable semiconductor lasers. However, optically pumped continuous-wave lasing at room temperature, a prerequisite for a laser diode, has not been realized so far. Here, we report lasing action in a surface-emitting distributed feedback methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) perovskite laser on a silicon substrate at room temperature under continuous-wave optical pumping. This outstanding performance is achieved because of the ultralow lasing threshold of 13 W/cm2, which is enabled by thermal nanoimprint lithography that directly patterns perovskite into a high-Q cavity with large mode confinement, while at the same time, it improves perovskite’s emission characteristics. Our results represent a major step toward electrically pumped lasing in organic and thin-film materials as well as the insertion of perovskite lasers into photonic integrated circuits for applications in optical computing, sensing, and on-chip quantum information.