Observation of polarized gain from aligned colloidal nanorods

In recent years, colloidal semiconductor nanorods have attracted great interest for polarized spontaneous emission. However, their polarized gain has not been possible to achieve so far. In this work we show the highly polarized stimulated emission from the densely packed ensembles of core-seeded nanorods in a cylindrical cavity. Here CdSe/CdS dot-in-rods were coated and aligned on the inner wall of a capillary tube, providing optical feedback for the nanorod gain medium. Results show that the polarized gain originates intrinsically from the aligned nanorods and not from the cavity and that the optical anisotropy of the nanorod ensemble was amplified with the capillary tube, resulting in highly polarized whispering gallery mode lasing. The highly polarized emission and lasing, together with easy fabrication and flexible incorporation, make this microlaser a promising candidate for important color conversion and enrichment applications including liquid crystal display backlighting and laser lighting. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.