Directional Lasing from Nanopatterned Halide Perovskite Nanowire.

Halide perovskite nanowire-based lasers have become a powerful tool for modern nanophotonics, being deeply subwavelength in cross-section and demonstrating low-threshold lasing within the whole visible spectral range owing to the huge gain of material even at room temperature. However, their emission directivity remains poorly controlled because of the efficient outcoupling of radiation through their subwavelength facets working as pointlike light sources. Here, we achieve directional lasing from a single perovskite CsPbBr3 nanowire by imprinting a nanograting on its surface, which provides stimulated emission outcoupling to its vertical direction with a divergence angle around 2°. The nanopatterning is carried out by the high-throughput laser ablation method, which preserves the luminescent properties of the material that is typically deteriorated after processing via conventional lithographic approaches. Moreover, nanopatterning of the perovskite nanowire is found to decrease the number of the lasing modes with a 2-fold increase of the quality factor of the remaining modes.

Luminescent Erbium-Doped Silicon Thin Films for Advanced Anti-Counterfeit Labels.

The never-ending struggle against counterfeit demands the constant development of security labels and their fabrication methods. This study demonstrates a novel type of security label based on downconversion photoluminescence from erbium-doped silicon. For fabrication of these labels, a femtosecond laser is applied to selectively irradiate a double-layered Er/Si thin film, which is accomplished by Er incorporation into a silicon matrix and silicon-layer crystallization. The study of laser-induced heating demonstrates that it creates optically active erbium centers in silicon, providing stable and enhanced photoluminescence at 1530 nm. Such a technique is utilized to create two types of anti-counterfeiting labels. The first type is realized by the single-step direct laser writing of luminescent areas and detected by optical microscopy as holes in the film forming the desired image. The second type, with a higher degree of security, is realized by adding other fabrication steps, including the chemical etching of the Er layer and laser writing of additional non-luminescent holes over an initially recorded image. During laser excitation at 525 nm of luminescent holes of the labels, a photoluminescent picture repeating desired data can be seen. The proposed labels are easily scalable and perspective for labeling of goods, securities, and luxury items.