Optical Gain Spectrum and Confinement Factor of a Monolayer Semiconductor in an Ultrahigh-Quality Cavity

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have attracted great attention as a novel class of gain materials for low-threshold, on-chip coherent light sources. Despite several experimental reports on lasing, the underlying gain mechanism of 2D materials remains elusive due to a lack of key information, including modal gain and the confinement factor. Here, we demonstrate a novel approach to directly determine the absorption coefficient of monolayer WS2 by characterizing the whispering gallery modes in a van der Waals microdisk cavity. By exploiting the cavity's high intrinsic quality factor of 2.5 x 10(4), the absorption coefficient spectrum and confinement factor are experimentally resolved with unprecedented accuracy. The excitonic gain reduces the WS2 absorption coefficient by 2 x 10(4) cm(-1) at room temperature, and the experimental confinement factor is found to agree with the theoretical prediction. These results are essential for unveiling the gain mechanism in emergent, low-threshold 2D-semiconductor-based laser devices.