Lu Chien-Yao, Chuang Shun Lien
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Opt Express. 2011 Jul 4;19(14):13225-44. doi: 10.1364/OE.19.013225.
A novel three-dimensional (3D) metal-nanocavity (or nano-coin) semiconductor laser suitable for electrical injection is proposed and analyzed. Our design uses metals as both the cavity sidewall and the top/bottom reflectors (i. e., a fully metal encapsulated nanolaser) and maintains the surface-emitting nature. As a result of the large permittivity contrast between the dielectric and metal, the optical energy can be well-confined inside the metal nanocavity. With a proper design and the choice of the HE111 mode, which has the best top surface radiation pattern, a laser with a physical size smaller than 0.01λ(0)(3) is achievable at 1.55 μm wavelength with a reasonable semiconductor gain at room temperature. We provide a detailed theoretical model starting from the waveguide analysis to full 3D structure simulations by taking into account both geometry and metal dispersion. We show a systematic procedure for analyzing this class of 3D metal-cavity (or nano-coin) lasers with discussions on the optimization of the performance such as light output power, threshold reduction, and output beam shaping.
提出并分析了一种适用于电注入的新型三维（3D）金属纳米腔（或纳米硬币）半导体激光器。我们的设计将金属用作腔侧壁以及顶部/底部反射器（即完全金属封装的纳米激光器），并保持表面发射特性。由于电介质与金属之间的介电常数差异很大，光能可以很好地限制在金属纳米腔内。通过适当的设计和选择具有最佳顶表面辐射图案的HE111模式，在室温下具有合理半导体增益的情况下，在1.55μm波长处可实现物理尺寸小于0.01λ(0)(3)的激光器。我们提供了一个详细的理论模型，从波导分析开始，到通过考虑几何形状和金属色散进行全三维结构模拟。我们展示了一种分析此类三维金属腔（或纳米硬币）激光器的系统程序，并讨论了诸如光输出功率、阈值降低和输出光束整形等性能的优化。
