Plasmon nanolasing with aluminum nanoparticle arrays

This paper compares plasmon nanolasing and corresponding ultrafast dynamics supported by Al and Au nanoparticle arrays. By tuning nanoparticle size, we achieved high-quality surface lattice resonances from both dipolar lattice plasmons and hybrid quadrupolar lattice plasmons at near-infrared wavelengths. We demonstrated that the dipolar and hybrid quadrupolar lattice modes can serve as optical feedback for plasmonic nanolasing. Even at the wavelength of its interband transition, Al showed nanolasing properties similar to Au. Also, independent of the type of cavity mode used as optical feedback, Al lattice plasmon lasing showed thresholds and ultrafast dynamics similar to Au.