Semiconductor nanowires are one of the most fascinating topics over the past few decades. As miniaturized coherent light sources, semiconductor nanowires have been attracting tremendous attention in recent years for scientific and technological interest as potential ultra-compact, low cost, high efficiency, and low power consumption. Among different types of lasers, one-dimensional nanowires are of great interest as a promising material for next-generation nanophotonics and nanoelectronics applications due to their unique optical and electrical properties. Semiconductor nanowire lasers with single-mode output are vital in a variety of practical applications ranging from signal processing, spectroscopy, displays, optical sensing, on-chip communications, and biological studies. This article reviews the basic technology and research progress of single-mode semiconductor nanowire lasers. Afterward, the key methods and development of the different types of coupling to achieved single-mode laser output are elaborated. Finally, the challenges faced by each scheme are summarized.

半导体纳米线是过去几十年来最引人入胜的主题之一。作为小型化的相干光源，半导体纳米线由于其潜在的超紧凑，低成本，高效率和低功耗的科学技术兴趣而近年来引起了极大的关注。在不同类型的激光器中，一维纳米线因其独特的光学和电学性质而成为下一代纳米光子学和纳米电子学应用的有前途的材料，引起了人们的极大兴趣。具有单模输出的半导体纳米线激光器在信号处理，光谱学，显示器，光学传感，片上通信和生物学研究等各种实际应用中至关重要。本文综述了单模半导体纳米线激光器的基本技术和研究进展。之后，阐述了实现单模激光输出的不同类型耦合的关键方法和发展。最后，总结了每种方案所面临的挑战。