Fig. 3

Scaling laws of physical volume vs. thickness. a The relationship between T and V for only the lasing plasmonic and photonic cavities, where T and V are the thickness and volume of cadmium selenide nanosquares, respectively. The relationship between T and V for the plasmonic nanolasers (black dots) follows the natural scaling law of \(T \propto V^{1/3}\) determined by the material growth process (black line). However, for photonic devices, the scaling of T shifts significantly away from the natural material scaling law when T approaches the diffraction limit (red dots). The red line is a guide to the eye. Error bar shows the thickness range for a certain number of measured devices with the same volume. b The relationship between cadmium selenide area A and V for only the lasing plasmonic (black dots) and photonic cavities (red dots), where A is the area of cadmium selenide nanosquares. Black line: guide to the eye of \(A \propto V^{2/3}\). Red line: guide to the eye of \(A \propto V\). Error bar shows the area range for a certain number of measured devices with the same volume. c Cadmium selenide thickness distribution histogram for plasmonic (black columns) and photonic (red columns) lasers. Lines: Gaussian distribution fittings. d Cadmium selenide physical volume distribution histogram for plasmonic (black columns) and photonic (red columns) lasers. Lines: Gaussian distribution fittings. In all the panels, λ refers to 700 nm