Source: Science and Technology Daily 2rd September 2025

On September 1st, it was learned from Zhejiang University that a team led by Professor David Wei Di, Researcher Chen Zou and Professor Baodan Zhao from the School of Optical Science and Engineering / Haining International Joint College of the university has developed the world's first electrically driven perovskite laser. The device adopts a dual optical microcavity design and has the advantages of low energy consumption and easy modulation. It can be used in optical data transmission and other application scenarios, as well as serving as a coherent light source in integrated photonic chips and wearable devices. The related research results were recently published in the international academic journal Nature.

▲ Structure and performance of electrically driven perovskite lasers. Image provided by the research team.

Semiconductor lasers are important light sources in the field of information technology. As a new type of laser material, perovskite semiconductors have relatively low processing costs, are easier to integrate into silicon-based photonic platforms that can be mass-produced on a large scale, and have tunable emission spectra. They can achieve extremely low laser emission thresholds under optical pumping conditions, presenting excellent technological prospects. The external energy sources required to drive laser operation mainly include electrical and optical forms. However, optical pumping usually requires the assistance of bulky external light sources, which limits the application scope of the devices. Developing electrically pumped perovskite lasers is a significant challenge in the field of perovskite optoelectronics.

"Our solution is to integrate high-power microcavity perovskite LED subunits and high-quality single-crystal perovskite microcavity subunits compactly in the same device," David Di introduced. This device efficiently couples a large number of photons generated by the microcavity perovskite LED under electrical excitation into the second microcavity and excites the single-crystal perovskite gain medium to generate laser light, with a coupling efficiency of 82.7%. This new type of semiconductor laser requires a threshold current of 92 amperes per square centimeter to emit laser light, which is one order of magnitude lower than that of the best-performing electrically driven organic laser, and shows good stability.

The research team discovered that the device can be rapidly modulated through electrical pulses at a bandwidth of 36.2 MHz. This modulation rate was achieved by reducing the effective area of the device to minimize the resistance-capacitance constant and using a silicon substrate to improve heat dissipation. Transitioning from the current integrated pump architecture to a more straightforward laser diode structure is the key to the team's next research efforts. The team will also attempt to overcome the nanosecond-level spontaneous emission lifetime limit of the microcavity perovskite LED subunits to achieve gigahertz-level high-speed operation of the device.