Random lasing in the composites consisting of photonic crystals and semiconductor nanowires

A well designed material composed of photonic crystals (PCs) and semiconductor nanowires was proposed. To illustrate our working principle, the nanocomposites consisting of SnO2 nanowires and PCs based on Tb(OH)(3)/SiO2 core/shell nanospheres have been synthesized and characterized. It is found that lasing behavior can be easily achieved using this composite material. The light confined inside the PCs due to the formation of stop band can be extracted along SnO2 nanowires. The observation of random lasing behavior indicates that the composites developed here open a route for the creation of optoelectronic devices. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3631673]