1D perovskites break free from 2D sheets and could enable production of cheap lasers

Extremely low-loss, chemically stable perovskite nanowires have been produced using simple solution deposition.¹ The technique can produce optically active waveguides and could, therefore, allow the scalable production of cheap, miniature lasers for sensing applications.

Lead halide perovskites are often seen as a promising material for photovoltaics as their direct bandgaps make them more optically absorbent than silicon and they can be tuned by altering the specific cations and anions in the lattice. Moreover, perovskites can be deposited directly from solution. In principle, they should also make excellent LEDs and semiconductor lasers.