Low-threshold amplified spontaneous emission and lasing from colloidal nanocrystals of caesium lead halide perovskites

Metal halide semiconductors with perovskite crystal structures have recently emerged as highly promising optoelectronic materials. Despite the recent surge of reports on microcrystalline, thin-film and bulk single-crystalline metal halides, very little is known about the photophysics of metal halides in the form of uniform, size-tunable nanocrystals. Here we report low-threshold amplified spontaneous emission and lasing from ~10 nm monodisperse colloidal nanocrystals of caesium lead halide perovskites CsPbX₃ (X=Cl, Br or I, or mixed Cl/Br and Br/I systems). We find that room-temperature optical amplification can be obtained in the entire visible spectral range (440-700 nm) with low pump thresholds down to 5+/-1 μJ cm^-2 and high values of modal net gain of at least 450+/-30 cm^-1. Two kinds of lasing modes are successfully observed: whispering-gallery-mode lasing using silica microspheres as high-finesse resonators, conformally coated with CsPbX₃ nanocrystals and random lasing in films of CsPbX₃ nanocrystals.