Transfer printing of semiconductor nanowire lasers

The authors review their work on the accurate positioning of semiconductor nanowire lasers by means of nanoscale Transfer Printing (nano-TP). Using this hybrid nanofabrication technique, indium phosphide (InP) NWs are successfully integrated at selected locations onto heterogeneous surfaces with high positioning accuracy. Moreover, we show that NW lasers can also be organised to form bespoke spatial patterns, including 1- or 2-Dimensional arrays, or complex configurations with defined number of NWs and controlled separation between them. Besides, our nano-TP technique also permits the integration of NWs with different dimensions in a single system. Notably, the nano-TP fabrication protocols do not affect the optical or structural properties of the NWs and they retain their room-temperature lasing emission after their positioning onto all investigated receiving surfaces. This developed nano-TP technique offers therefore new exciting prospects for the fabrication of hybrid bespoke nanophotonic systems using NW lasers as building blocks.