Article abstract
Nature Photonics 1, 589 - 594 (2007)
Published online: 16 September 2007 | doi:10.1038/nphoton.2007.171
Subject Categories: Lasers, LEDs and light sources | Novel materials and engineered structures
Lasing in metallic-coated nanocavities
Martin T. Hill1,
Yok-Siang Oei1,
Barry Smalbrugge1,
Youcai Zhu1,
Tjibbe de Vries1,
Peter J. van Veldhoven1,
Frank W. M. van Otten1,
Tom J. Eijkemans1,
Jaros
aw P. Turkiewicz1,
Huug de Waardt1,
Erik Jan Geluk1,
Soon-Hong Kwon2,
Yong-Hee Lee2,
Richard Nötzel1
&
Meint K. Smit1
Abstract
Metallic cavities can confine light to volumes with dimensions considerably smaller than the wavelength of light. It is commonly believed, however, that the high losses in metals are prohibitive for laser operation in small metallic cavities. Here we report for the first time laser operation in an electrically pumped metallic-coated nanocavity formed by a semiconductor heterostructure encapsulated in a thin gold film. The demonstrated lasers show a low threshold current and their dimensions are smaller than the smallest electrically pumped lasers reported so far. With dimensions comparable to state-of-the-art electronic transistors and operating at low power and high speed, they are a strong contender as basic elements in digital photonic very large-scale integration. Furthermore we demonstrate that metallic-coated nanocavities with modal volumes smaller than dielectric cavities can have moderate quality factors.
- COBRA Research Institute, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Postbus 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
- Department of Physics, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Korea
Correspondence to: Martin T. Hill1 e-mail: m.t.hill@ieee.org
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