Unidirectional emission of GaN-based eccentric microring laser with low threshold.

Abstract

To reduce the threshold and achieve unidirectional lasing emission in a whispering gallery mode microcavity, we propose and demonstrate a GaN-based eccentric microring with an inner hole located off the center. Compared to microdisk with the same outer diameter, the eccentric microring structure exhibits a remarkable reduction of lasing threshold by up to 53%. The introduction of the hole disturbs and eventually suppresses the field distribution of the higher order modes. Laser emission with high unidirectionality with a far-field divergence angle of about 40° has been achieved, meanwhile the Q factor of the whispering gallery modesis remains high as 6388. Finite-difference time-domain numerical simulation is carried out to prove that the far-field profile of the eccentric microring structure can be controlled by the position and the size of the hole. The properties of the whispering gallery mode microcavities are improved greatly through a simple structure and process, which has an important guiding significance to the research and development of the microcavity lasers.