LAUSR

Organic semiconductor nanowires have inherent advantages, such as amenability to low-cost, low-temperature processing, and inherent four-level energy systems, which will significantly contribute to the organic solid-state lasers (OSSLs) and miniaturized laser devices. However, the realization of near-infrared (NIR) organic nanowire lasers is always a big challenge due to the difficultly in fabrication of organic nanowires with diameters of ≈100 nm and material issues such as low photoluminescence quantum efficiency in the red-NIR region. What is more, the achievement of wavelength-tunable OSSLs has also encountered enormous challenge. This study first demonstrates the 720 nm NIR lasing with a low lasing threshold of ≈1.4 µJ cm−2 from the organic single-crystalline nanowires, which are self-assembled from small organic molecules of (E)-3-(4-(dimethylamino)-2-methoxyphenyl)-1-(1-hydroxynaphthalen-2-yl)prop-2-en-1-one through a facile solution-phase growth method. Notably, these individual nanowires' Fabry–Perot cavity can alternatively provide the red-NIR lasing action at 660 or 720 nm from the 0–1 or 0–2 radiative transition channels, and the single (660 or 720 nm)/dual-wavelength (660 and 720 nm) laser action can be achieved by modulating the length of these organic nanowires due to the intrinsic self-absorption. These easily-fabricated organic nanowires are natural laser sources, which offer considerable promise for coherent light devices integrated on the optics microchip.