ABSTRACTThe lead-salt epitaxial membrane embedded with two dimensional hexagonal air holes lattice array was used to develop the mid-infrared (mid-IR) photonic crystal surface emitting laser. For the initial proof-of-concept research work, we demonstrated intensive photonic crystal coupled mid-IR vertical light emissions from the designed structure under cryogenic temperature range. In order to realize room temperature operation, we modified the photonic bands structure, aligned the photonic crystal coupled mode with the gain spectrum of active material at 300 K. As a result, under pulsed mode optical excitation, multi-mode room temperature mid-IR photonic crystal lasing emissions were achieved at wavelength ∼3.5 μm recently. With further optimization, a practical lead-salt continuous-wave operating room temperature surface emitting photonic crystal laser is anticipated soon, and this will explore promising applications in a wide variety of fields.
Room temperature continuous-wave lasing in photonic crystal nanocavity
