High-Q nanocavities in semiconductor-based three-dimensional photonic crystals

TL;DR

This paper reports the experimental achievement of high-Q nanocavities in 3D photonic crystals made of GaAs with embedded quantum dots, leading to lasing oscillation, by increasing the in-plane structure size.

Contribution

Demonstrated a significant increase in Q-factor of 3D photonic crystal nanocavities through structural design and fabrication techniques, enabling lasing.

Findings

Q-factor improved to 93,000, 2.4 times higher than previous work.

Lasing oscillation observed from the high-Q cavity mode.

Successful fabrication of GaAs-based 3D photonic crystal nanocavities with embedded quantum dots.

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrated high quality factors (Q-factors) of nanocavities in three-dimensional photonic crystals by increasing the in-plane area of the structure. Entire structures made of GaAs were fabricated by a micro-manipulation technique, and the nanocavities contained InAs self-assembled quantum dots that emitted near-infrared light. The obtained Q-factor was improved to 93,000, which is 2.4-times larger than that in a previous report of a three-dimensional photonic crystal nanocavity. Due to this large Q-factor, we successfully observed a lasing oscillation from this cavity mode.