1.5 mu m room-temperature emission of square-lattice photonic-crystal waveguide lasers with a single line defect

Narrow waveguides consisting of a single defect-line (W1) in a square lattice photonic crystal are fabricated on InP using the substrate approach. A single-mode distributed-feedback laser emission is obtained under optical pumping at room temperature. Lasing occurs at the second folding point of the dispersion curve of the fundamental waveguide mode (wave vector k=0). The emitted wavelength ranges from 1420 to 1580 nm for a lattice period varying from 460 to 520 nm and a constant air filling factor of ∼ 26%. The highly monomode behavior is explained using two-dimensional plane-wave models. Similar experiments conducted on triangular lattice W1 waveguides do not yield a laser emission. Three-dimensional simulations confirm that triangular lattice W1 waveguides suffer higher losses than their square homologues. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.