A method for forming a pumped laser structure includes forming a III-V buffer layer on a substrate including one of Si or Ge; forming a light emitting diode (LED) on the buffer layer configured to produce a threshold pump power; forming a photonic crystal layer on the LED and depositing a monolayer semiconductor nanocavity laser on the photonic crystal layer for receiving light through the photonic crystal layer from the LED with an optical pump power greater than the threshold pump power, wherein the LED and the laser are formed monolithically and the LED functions as an optical pump for the laser.

Embodiments include a gain system and method. The system includes a gain medium with a plurality of plasmonic apparatus. Each plasmonic apparatus includes a substrate having a first plasmonic surface, a plasmonic nanoparticle having a second plasmonic surface, and a dielectric-filled gap between the first plasmonic surface and the second plasmonic surface. A plasmonic cavity is created by an assembly of the first plasmonic surface, the second plasmonic surface, and the dielectric-filled gap, and has a first fundamental wavelength .sub.1 and second fundamental wavelength .sub.2. Fluorescent particles are located in the dielectric-filled gap. Each fluorescent particle has an absorption spectrum at the first fundamental wavelength .sub.1 and an emission spectrum at the second fundamental wavelength .sub.2. An excitation applied to the gain medium at the first fundamental wavelength .sub.1 produces an amplified electromagnetic wave emission at the second resonant wavelength .sub.2.

Laser device characterized in that it comprises, as gain medium, a film of colloidal nanocrystals of semiconductor material, wherein said nanocrystals are two-dimensional nanocrystals suitable for forming quantum wells for confinement of the charge carriers in the nanocrystals and having a biexciton gain mechanism.

An electronic device includes a substrate and at least two electrodes spaced by a nanogap, wherein the at least two electrodes are bridged by at least one nanoparticle and wherein the at least one nanoparticle has an overlap area with the at least two electrodes higher than 2% of the area of the at least one nanoparticle. A method of manufacturing the electronic device and the use of the electronic device in photodetector, transistor, phototransistor, optical modulator, electrical diode, photovoltaic cell or electroluminescent component are also described.

A laser structure includes a substrate, a buffer layer formed on the substrate and a light emitting diode (LED) formed on the buffer layer. A photonic crystal layer is formed on the LED. A monolayer semiconductor nanocavity laser is formed on the photonic crystal layer for receiving light through the photonic crystal layer from the LED, wherein the LED and the laser are formed monolithically and the LED acts as an optical pump for the laser.

Devices and systems with lasers, such as vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), and methods of forming the same, are disclosed herein. In one example, a laser includes multiple mirrors and one or more quantum wells between the mirrors, where the mirrors include at least one metasurface mirror.