Directional Emission, Increased Free Spectral Range, and Mode $Q$-Factors in 2-D Wavelength-Scale Optical Microcavity Structures

Achieving single-mode operation and highly directional (preferably unidirectional) in-plane light output from whispering-gallery (WG)-mode semiconductor microdisk resonators without seriously degrading the mode Q-factor challenges designers of low-threshold microlasers. To address this problem, basic design rules to tune the spectral and emission characteristics of microscale optical cavity structures with nanoscale features by tailoring their geometry are formulated and discussed in this paper. The validity and usefulness of these rules is demonstrated by reviewing a number of previously studied cavity shapes with global and local deformations. The rules provide leads to novel improved WG-mode cavity designs, two of which are presented: a cross-shaped photonic molecule with introduced asymmetry and a photonic-crystal-assisted microdisk resonator. Both these designs yield degenerate-mode splitting, as well as Q-factor enhancement and directional light output of one of the split modes

[1]  Hakan E. Tureci,et al.  Mode competition and output power in regular and chaotic dielectric cavity lasers , 2005, SPIE LASE.

[2]  Yong-Zhen Huang,et al.  Analysis of mode characteristics for deformed square resonators by FDTD technique , 2006, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[3]  P. Sewell,et al.  Q factor and emission pattern control of the WG modes in notched microdisk resonators , 2006, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[4]  Svetlana V. Boriskina.  Spectrally engineered photonic molecules as optical sensors with enhanced sensitivity: a proposal and numerical analysis , 2006 .

[5]  P. Sewell,et al.  Optical modes in 2-D imperfect square and triangular microcavities , 2005, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[6]  Trevor M Benson,et al.  Accurate simulation of two-dimensional optical microcavities with uniquely solvable boundary integral equations and trigonometric Galerkin discretization. , 2004, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[7]  F. Courvoisier,et al.  Multimode resonances in square-shaped optical microcavities. , 2001, Optics letters.

[8]  Liying Liu,et al.  Intense directional lasing from a deformed square-shaped organic-inorganic hybrid glass microring cavity. , 2003, Optics letters.

[9]  M. Hammer,et al.  Modeling of grating assisted standing wave, microresonators for filter applications in integrated optics , 2004 .

[10]  Ekmel Ozbay,et al.  Investigation of localized coupled-cavity modes in two-dimensional photonic bandgap structures , 2002 .

[11]  P. Sewell,et al.  Optical coupling of whispering-gallery modes of two identical microdisks and its effect on photonic molecule lasing , 2006, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[12]  D. Erni,et al.  In-Plane Coupling into Circular-Grating Resonators for All-Optical Switching , 2006, International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks.

[13]  Po-Tsung Lee,et al.  Threshold dependence on the spectral alignment between the quantum-well gain peak and the cavity resonance in InGaAsP photonic crystal lasers , 2003 .

[14]  Pierre M. Petroff,et al.  Deterministic Coupling of Single Quantum Dots to Single Nanocavity Modes , 2005, Science.

[15]  Dong-Jae Shin,et al.  Highly directional emission from few-micron-size elliptical microdisks , 2004 .

[16]  Cho,et al.  High-power directional emission from microlasers with chaotic resonators , 1998, Science.

[17]  Trevor M. Benson,et al.  Spectral shift and Q change of circular and square-shaped optical microcavity modes due to periodic sidewall surface roughness , 2004 .

[18]  Jacob Scheuer,et al.  Lasing from a circular Bragg nanocavity with an ultrasmall modal volume , 2005 .

[19]  G. Strasser,et al.  Long-wavelength (/spl lambda/=10 /spl mu/m) quadrupolar-shaped GaAs-AlGaAs microlasers , 2000, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[20]  H. Moon,et al.  Selective Lasing of Closed Four Bounce Modes in a Layered Square Microcavity , 2004 .

[21]  Claus Müller,et al.  Foundations of the mathematical theory of electromagnetic waves , 1969 .

[22]  Richard K. Chang,et al.  Dramatic shape sensitivity of directional emission patterns from similarly deformed cylindrical polymer lasers , 2004 .

[23]  Satoru Ishii,et al.  Photonic molecule laser composed of GaInAsP microdisks , 2005 .

[24]  S. Boriskina,et al.  Theoretical prediction of a dramatic Q-factor enhancement and degeneracy removal of whispering gallery modes in symmetrical photonic molecules. , 2006, Optics letters.

[25]  S. Boriskina,et al.  Optical Spectra and Output Coupling Engineering in Hybrid WG-Mode Micro- and Meso-scale Cavity Structures , 2006, 2006 International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks.

[26]  O. Painter,et al.  Beyond the Rayleigh scattering limit in high-Q silicon microdisks: theory and experiment. , 2005, Optics express.

[27]  Richard K. Chang,et al.  Unidirectional lasing from InGaN multiple-quantum-well spiral-shaped micropillars , 2003 .

[28]  Wei-Hua Guo,et al.  Whispering-gallery-like modes in square resonators , 2003 .

[29]  M. S. Kurdoglyan,et al.  Resonance patterns in a stadium-shaped microcavity , 2004, nlin/0409011.

[30]  S. Sunada,et al.  Asymmetric stationary lasing patterns in 2D symmetric microcavities. , 2003, Physical review letters.

[31]  P. Benech,et al.  Modelization of the whispering gallery mode in microgear resonators using the Floquet-Bloch formalism , 2005, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[32]  Richard K. Chang,et al.  Q spoiling and directionality in deformed ring cavities. , 1994, Optics letters.

[33]  Richard K. Chang,et al.  Progress in Asymmetric Resonant Cavities: Using Shape as a Design Parameter in Dielectric Microcavity Lasers , 2004 .

[34]  J. R. A. Cleaver,et al.  Microdisk laser structures for mode control and directional emission , 1998 .

[35]  Lorenza Viola,et al.  Tunneling proximity resonances: interplay between symmetry and dissipation , 2000 .

[36]  A. F. J. Levi,et al.  Directional light coupling from microdisk lasers , 1993 .

[37]  S. Sunada,et al.  Nonlinear whispering-gallery modes in a microellipse cavity. , 2004, Optics letters.

[38]  Johann Peter Reithmaier,et al.  Optical Modes in Photonic Molecules , 1998 .

[39]  Gunnar Björk,et al.  Analysis of semiconductor microcavity lasers using rate equations , 1991 .

[40]  Trevor M. Benson,et al.  Micro-optical resonators for microlasers and integrated optoelectronics: recent advances and future challenges , 2006, physics/0607239.