Room-temperature ultraviolet laser emission from self-assembled ZnO microcrystallite thin films

Room-temperature ultraviolet (UV) laser emission of ZnO microcrystallite thin films is reported. The hexagonal ZnO microcrystallites are grown by laser molecular beam epitaxy. They are self-assembled and parallelly arrayed on sapphire substrates. The facets of the hexagons form natural Fabry-Perot lasing cavities. The optical gain for the room-temperature UV stimulated emission is of an excitonic nature and has a peak value an order of magnitude larger than that of bulk ZnO crystal. The observation of room-temperature UV lasing from the ordered, nano-sized ZnO crystals represents an important step towards the development of nanometer photoelectronics. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(98)03325-7]