Jiang-Rong Cao

Two-dimensional photonic crystal Mach–Zehnder interferometers

Mach-Zehnder interferometers were fabricated from suspended membrane photonic crystal waveguides. Transmission spectra were measured and device operation was shown to be in agreement with theoretical predictions.

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.

Sapphire-bonded photonic Crystal microcavity lasers and their far-field radiation patterns

Room-temperature continuous-wave lasing was demonstrated in photonic crystal microcavities with diameters of approximately 3.2 /spl mu/m. Far-field radiation patterns of these lasers were experimentally measured and compared with numerical simulation predictions.

Quality factors in single-defect photonic-crystal lasers with asymmetric cladding layers

We present quality factors of single-defect photonic-crystal resonant cavities with asymmetric cladding layers. The resonators studied here are dielectric slabs patterned with two-dimensional photonic crystals on a sapphire substrate. Three-dimensional finite-element and finite-difference time-domain routines were used to analyze the electromagnetic properties of these cavities. We observe that high quality factors (∼800) can be obtained in these cavities for reasonable structures with thick enough dielectric slabs. This work was motivated by the need to place photonic-crystal resonators on a substrate to improve heat dissipation in photonic-crystal lasers.

Nanofabrication of photonic crystal membrane lasers

We present techniques for fabricating photonic crystal (PC) membrane defect lasers. These nanostructures operate as optically pumped lasers under pulsed conditions at room temperature. The thin membrane PC defect structures are formed by transferring an electron-beam lithographically defined lattice pattern into an epitaxial layer structure by a sequential process of ion beam etching, reactive ion etching, and electron cyclotron resonance etching steps. A V-shape undercut channel is formed by a wet chemical etching using a 4:1 mixture of HCl and H2O to create the suspended membrane. We include a detailed description of a dependable and repeatable HCl undercut process for the PC structure.

Room-temperature operation of VCSEL-pumped photonic crystal lasers

Room-temperature operation of two-dimensional photonic crystal lasers optically pumped by a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser emitting at 860 nm is reported. The photonic crystal membrane is surrounded by air on both sides and consists of four compressively strained quantum wells as the active region. The incident threshold pump power of an approximately 2.6-/spl mu/m-diameter hexagonal defect cavity laser operating at 1.6 /spl mu/m is 2.4 mW.

Threshold dependence on the spectral alignment between the quantum-well gain peak and the cavity resonance in InGaAsP photonic crystal lasers

Lithographically defined multiwavelength photonic crystal laser arrays are reported. The dependence of the threshold pump power on the spectral alignment between the quantum-well gain peak and the cavity resonance wavelength is investigated. This is done at, and slightly above, room temperature.

Experimental characterization of the reflectance of 60° waveguide bends in photonic crystal waveguides

Photonic crystal waveguides with two 60° bends were fabricated in an InGaAsP∕InP suspended membrane geometry. The transmission spectrum was measured and the reflectance of the 60° bend was evaluated from Fabry–Perot oscillations using Fourier analysis. It is shown that the reflectance agrees well with the results of a finite element method simulation.

Photonic crystal lasers

Photonic crystal microcavity lasers are potentially attractive optical sources for future communication systems. They operate at lithographically defined wavelengths and because of their small volumes they are expected to exhibit low operating powers. Much work remains to be done, however, in order for these sources to find mainstream applications. In this presentation we will report on our work on optically pumped photonic crystal lasers. Finite-difference time-domain and finite element simulations will be presented as part of a discussion of the resonant cavity design. The trade-offs in the design of photonic lattice hole radius and membrane thickness will also be included, and we will discuss strategies for minimizing the optical loss in these cavities. The photonic crystal laser cavities reported here are defined by electron beam lithography in pmma. The pmma is subsequently used as a mask to transfer the pattern into a Cr/Au layer in an ion beam milling step. This patterned metal layer is then used as a mask for a reactive ion etch that patterns a silicon nitride layer. Finally this layer is used as a mask to transfer the lattice into the InGaAsP semiconductor using an ECR etching step. Suspended membranes are formed by chemically undercutting the lattice. This provides strong optical confinement at the semiconductor/air interfaces at the top and bottom of the cavity. We have demonstrated pulsed, optically pumped lasing at and above room temperature in these resonant cavities using a semiconductor diode laser as the pump. The resonant cavity in our demonstration is formed by removing 19 holes from a triangular lattice and is about 2.6 mm across. Incident threshold pump powers for this cavity size as low as 0.5 mW have been demonstrated at room temperature. The peak output power collected through an optical fiber is approximately 2 mW. Lasing is seen for pump pulses as long as 200 ns. We have also demonstrated lasing in these cavities at elevated substrate temperatures. This demonstration was done using an 860 nm top emitting VCSEL as the pumping source because we expect it to provide a direction towards monolithic, electrically addressable lasers. Input power versus output power lasing characteristics for substrate temperatures up to 50 °C have been obtained. We will also report on our work on lithographic fine-tuning of the lasing wavelength. This wavelength can be defined through the lattice constant or the hole radius. This feature of photonic crystal lasers allows the definition of multiwavelength arrays. We have built and characterized arrays in which the lattice constant varies 2 nm steps across the array. The lasing wavelength redshifts with increasing lattice constant with an average separation between adjacent lasing wavelengths of 4.6 nm. The lasing wavelength tunes through the gain spectrum before the laser mode hops. Finally, we will present data on the optical loss in these cavities obtained by varying the number of lattice periods. We observed a reduction in incident threshold pump powers with increasing number of lattice periods at least through 11 periods.

Photonic crystal microcavity lasers

We report on our progress made in developing microcavity photonic crystal lasers. Both suspended membrane devices and devices formed in membranes bonded to sapphire are described.