First-Principles Threshold Calculation of Photonic Crystal Surface-Emitting Lasers Using Rigorous Coupled Wave Analysis

TL;DR

This paper presents a first-principles method using rigorous coupled wave analysis to calculate the lasing threshold of photonic crystal surface-emitting lasers by analyzing the scattering matrix in the complex frequency plane.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to determine laser thresholds from first-principles using RCWA and S-matrix pole analysis, applicable to complex surface-emitting laser structures.

Findings

Threshold can be calculated from the S-matrix pole reaching the real axis.

Method applicable to complex in-plane structures.

Provides a first-principles computational approach for laser design.

Abstract

We show that the threshold of a photonic crystal surface-emitting laser can be calculated from first-principles by the method of rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA), which has been widely used to simulate the response spectra of passive periodic structures. Here, the scattering matrix (S-matrix) of a surface-emitting laser structure with added gain is calculated on the complex frequency plane using RCWA, and the lasing threshold is determined by the value of gain for which the pole of the S-matrix reaches the real axis. This approach can be used for surface emitting laser struc tures in general, and is particularly useful for the surface emitting laser systems with complex in-plane structures.