Photonic Crystal Laser Operating Research Articles

High-Temperature Operation of Photonic-Crystal Lasers for On-Chip Optical Interconnection

SUMMARY To meet the demand for light sources for on-chip optical interconnections, we demonstrate the continuous-wave (CW) operation of photonic-crystal (PhC) nanocavity lasers at up to 89.8 ◦ Cb y using InP buried heterostructures (BH). The wavelength of a PhC laser can be precisely designed over a wide range exceeding 100 nm by controlling the lattice constant of the PhC. The dynamic responses of the PhC laser are also demonstrated with a 3-dB bandwidth of over 7.0 GHz at 66.2 ◦ C. These results reveal the laser’s availability for application to wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical interconnection on CMOS chips. We discuss the total bandwidths of future on-chip optical interconnections, and report the capabilities of PhC lasers.

Over 1 hour continuous-wave operation of photonic crystal lasers

We report on the long lifetime (>1 hour) of photonic crystal (PC) lasers under continuous-wave (CW) operation. For stable CW operation, we van-der-Waals-bonded our PC lasers to a novel submount structure consisting of MgF2-diamond bilayers on silicon substrate, which simultaneously ensures vertical mode confinement and efficient heat spread/dissipation. The combination of a Γ-point band-edge mode and butt-end fiber coupling yielded high CW fiber-coupled output power (~200 μW). The results demonstrate that the CW lifetime of PC lasers can be extended to the level for practical applications.

Microfluidic integration of porous photonic crystal nanolasers for chemical sensing

We have recently developed planar photonic crystal nanolasers based on porous cavity designs. High-quality factor cavities confine light within the pores of the photonic crystal and, thus, our lasers are ideally suited for the investigation of nanoscale interactions between light and matter. We have demonstrated the operation of photonic crystal lasers within different chemical solutions, embedded them into silicone microfluidic flow channels, and were able to detect refractive index changes as small as /spl Delta/n=0.005. We predict that our porous nanolasers can detect refractive index changes as small as /spl Delta/n=8.23/spl middot/10/sup -4/.

Photonic crystal laser sources for chemical detection

We have realized photonic crystal lasers that permit the introduction of analyte within the peak of the optical field of the lasing mode. We have explored the design compromises for developing such sensitive low-threshold spectroscopy sources, and demonstrate the operation of photonic crystal lasers in different ambient organic solutions. We show that nanocavity lasers can be used to perform spectroscopic tests on femtoliter volumes of analyte, and propose to use these lasers for high-resolution spectroscopy with single-molecule sensitivity.

Operation of photonic crystal membrane lasers above room temperature

Operation of photonic crystal lasers for substrate temperatures as high as 50 °C is reported. The temperature dependence of the lasing wavelength and the threshold pump power is also investigated. The characteristic temperature To is 37.7 K.