Mechanical forces induced by high-speed oscillations provide an elegant way to dynamically alter the fundamental properties of materials such as refractive index, absorption coefficient and gain dynamics. Although the precise control of mechanical oscillation has been well developed in the past decades, the notion of dynamic mechanical forces has not been harnessed for developing tunable lasers. Here we demonstrate actively tunable mid-infrared laser action in group-IV nanomechanical oscillators with a compact form factor. A suspended GeSn cantilever nanobeam on a Si substrate is resonantly driven by radio-frequency waves. Electrically controlled mechanical oscillation induces elastic strain that periodically varies with time in the GeSn nanobeam, enabling actively tunable lasing emission at >2 μm wavelengths. By utilizing mechanical resonances in the radio frequency as a driving mechanism, this work presents wide-range mid-infrared tunable lasers with ultralow tuning power consumption.

高速振荡引起的机械力提供了一种动态改变材料基本特性（例如折射率、吸收系数和增益动态）的优雅方式。尽管机械振荡的精确控制在过去几十年中已经得到了很好的发展，但动态机械力的概念尚未被用于开发可调谐激光器。在这里，我们展示了具有紧凑外形的 IV 族纳米机械振荡器中的主动可调谐中红外激光作用。 Si 基底上悬浮的 GeSn 悬臂纳米梁由射频波谐振驱动。电控机械振荡会在 GeSn 纳米束中产生随时间周期性变化的弹性应变，从而实现 >2 μm 波长的主动可调激光发射。通过利用射频中的机械谐振作为驱动机制，这项工作提出了具有超低调谐功耗的宽范围中红外可调谐激光器。