Abstract
We design, fabricate, and test photonic crystal heterostructure cavity lasers in the InP material system. A heterostructure cavity is formed by interfacing two different photonic crystals such that a dispersion maximum of the inner lattice lies within the band gap of the surrounding lattice. Feedback to slow light modes of the central region results in a lower threshold and single mode operation. The use of a kagome lattice as the inner defect area increases the semiconductor volume as well as the modal overlap with the gain material. We use a simulation technique to verify experimentally observed single mode operation as well as to quantify the effects of the heterostructure cavity formation.
Highlights
The progression of fabrication technologies has allowed for the realization of compact and efficient semiconductor lasers
The photonic crystal heterostructure cavity laser can be experimentally compared to a kagome band edge laser
The high reflectivity of the photonic band gap of the hexagonal cladding results in high feedback to the central kagome region which operates at the band edge
Summary
The progression of fabrication technologies has allowed for the realization of compact and efficient semiconductor lasers. Two-dimensional photonic crystals have been pursued as viable candidates for creating micro- and nano-scale lasers [1] These types of devices utilize a periodic refractive index variation which enables ultra-small modal volumes and low lasing thresholds with high fidelity in their lasing spectrum [2]-[5]. Slow light effects at the dispersion symmetry points, or band edges, in photonic crystals can be used to create lasers [6]-[8]. The design of the laser is such that a band edge confined mode of the kagome inner lattice is in the photonic band gap of the surrounding hexagonal lattice This results in optical feed back to a slow light mode of the inner region. The effects of the formation of the heterostructure on the optical mode will be quantified experimentally and numerically
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