Nanoscale Lasers Based on Carbon Peapods

TL;DR

This paper explores the design of nanoscale lasers utilizing carbon peapods, where the internal structure of carbon nanotubes with C60 molecules acts as a resonant cavity and mirrors, potentially enabling single-mode laser operation at the nanoscale.

Contribution

It introduces a novel nanoscale laser scheme based on the unique structure of carbon peapods with detailed analysis of their resonant cavity properties.

Findings

Carbon peapods can serve as nanoscale laser cavities.

Ordered C60 arrays create photonic bandgap structures.

Potential for single-mode nanoscale laser operation.

Abstract

A scheme of nanoscale lasers based on the so-called carbon peapods is examined in details. Since there is considerable cylindrical empty space in the middle of a single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT), it can serve as a laser resonant cavity that consists of two highly reflecting, alignment “mirrors” separated by some distance. These mirrors refer to the ordered arrays of C60 inside SWCNTs, which have photonic bandgap structures. Meanwhile, ideally single-mode lasers are supposed to be produced in the nanoscale resonant cavity.