Measuring the frequency response of optically pumped metal-clad nanolasers

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to measure the frequency response of metal-clad nanolasers, demonstrating their potential for high-speed operation with a significantly higher D-factor than conventional semiconductor lasers.

Contribution

It introduces a novel measurement technique for nanolaser frequency response and provides experimental and theoretical evidence of their high-speed capabilities.

Findings

Nanolasers have a D-factor an order of magnitude higher than state-of-the-art semiconductor lasers.

The measurement technique accurately captures the intrinsic frequency response of nanolasers.

Theoretical models agree with experimental results, confirming the high-speed potential.

Abstract

We report on our initial attempt to characterize the intrinsic frequency response of metal-clad nanolasers. The probed nanolaser is optically biased and modulated, allowing the emitted signal to be detected using a high-speed photodiode at each modulation frequency. Based on this technique, the prospect of high-speed operation of nanolasers is evaluated by measuring the D-factor, which is the ratio of the resonance frequency to the square root of its output power (fR/P_out^2). Our measurements show that for nanolasers, this factor is an order of magnitude greater than that of other state-of-the-art directly modulated semiconductor lasers. The theoretical analysis, based on the rate equation model and finite element method simulations of the cavity is in full agreement with the measurement results.