Chirality of a resonance in the absence of backscatterings.

Chirality of a resonance localized on an islands chain is studied in a deformed Reuleaux triangular-shaped microcavity, where clockwise and counter clockwise traveling rays are classically separated. A resonance localized on a period-5 islands chain exhibits chiral emission due to the asymmetric cavity shape. Chirality is experimentally proved in a InGaAsP multi-quantum-well semiconductor laser by showing that the experimental emission characteristics well coincide with the wave dynamical ones.

Unidirectional emission from a cardioid-shaped microcavity laser.

We find unidirectional emission in a cardioid-shaped microcavity laser. When a deformation parameter is well adjusted, rays starting around a period-5 unstable periodic orbit emit unidirectionally. To confirm the emission direction, we fabricate a laser by using an InGaAsP semiconductor and investigate emission characteristics. When the laser is excited by current injection with a dc current, resonances localized on the period-5 unstable periodic orbit emit unidirectionally.

Nonuniform output characteristics of laser diode with wet-etched spot-size converter.

We study the output characteristics of spot-size converter (SSC) integrated buried heterostructure (BH) laser diode (LD) by forming SSC with wet etching process. SSC-LD shows large chip-to-chip variation in threshold current(Ith) and slope efficiency (eta(slope)) compared to LD without SSC. Ith and eta(slope) are closely related with each other so that the front facet eta(slope) increases while the rear facet eta(slope) decreases with Ith. Far-field angle is also found to be proportional to the front facet eta(slope). The trends observed are explained clearly by a unidirectional loss occurring when photons travel from the front to rear facet.

Loss-coupled distributed-feedback lasers with amplified optical feedback for optical microwave generation.

Multisection semiconductor lasers for optical microwave generation have been fabricated that consist of a loss-coupled distributed feedback (LC-DFB), a phase control, and an amplifier section. High-frequency self-pulsations are generated according to the concept of a single-mode laser with short optical feedback. The effect of the optical feedback via the phase control and the amplifier section on the self-pulsation is apparently shown as a result of the superior single-mode characteristic of the LC-DFB section. Continuous frequency tuning is achieved in the range of 17-35 GHz.

Electrically driven single-cell photonic crystal laser.

We report the experimental demonstration of an electrically driven, single-mode, low threshold current (approximately 260 microA) photonic band gap laser operating at room temperature. The electrical current pulse is injected through a sub-micrometer-sized semiconductor wire at the center of the mode with minimal degradation of the quality factor. The actual mode of interest operates in a nondegenerate monopole mode, as evidenced through the comparison of the measurement with the computation based on the actual fabricated structural parameters. As a small step toward a thresholdless laser or a single photon source, this wavelength-size photonic crystal laser may be of interest to photonic crystals, cavity quantum electrodynamics, and quantum information communities.

Small, low-loss heterogeneous photonic bandedge laser.

We have demonstrated the operation of a new type of heterogeneous photonic crystal laser, a five-lattice-constant large photonic bandedge laser assisted by a photonic bandgap, in a triangular lattice at room temperature. When the air hole radius of the surrounding photonic crystal (PC) is slightly smaller than that of the bandedge mode region, most in-plane losses of the first K point bandedge mode in the central region are suppressed and the quality factor of the mode is greatly enhanced to 50000. We identified the photonic bandgap-bandedge (PBG-BE) lasing modes through the spectral position, near-field pattern, and the state of polarization, which correspond well with the results of the three-dimensional (3D) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method computation. The two-dimensional (2D) feedback mechanism of the first K bandedge was verified through the Fourier analysis. Low threshold incident peak pump power of ~ 0.24 mW is achieved owing to the low optical loss of the PBG-BE mode.