Surface-mode lasing from stacked InGaN insertions in a GaN matrix

Abstract

We report surface-mode lasing in a structure with 12-fold stacked InGaN insertions in a GaN matrix without using of Bragg mirrors. At high excitation densities, one of the modes of the Fabry–Perot cavity formed by the GaN sapphire and the GaN air interfaces, shows a strong superlinear increase in intensity with excitation density rise. The possibility to reach surface lasing in a very low finesse microcavity is due to the ultrahigh material gain of the InGaN insertions. The strong modulation of the absorption-gain spectrum with increase in the excitation density results in a pronounced energy shift of the cavity modes. We found that the threshold excitation density is weakly affected by temperature up to 110 K, while increases at higher temperatures. This behavior is attributed to thermal evaporation of carriers from InN-rich nanodomains and is typical for quantum dot lasers.