Characterization of photonic crystal microcavities with manufacture imperfections

Disorder-induced losses in planar photonic crystals

The phenomenological approach introduced by Benisty [Appl. Phys. Lett. 76, 532 (2000)] to model out-of-plane radiation losses in planar photonic crystals with a low vertical refractive index contrast is extended to the case of in-plane disorder. The model is experimentally validated by means of optical measurements on GaAs-based structures. For the present fabrication techniques the disorder-induced contribution is found to be negligible compared with the other loss mechanisms.

Self-optimization of optical confinement in an ultraviolet photonic crystal slab laser

We studied numerically and experimentally the effects of structural disorder on the performance of ultraviolet photonic crystal slab lasers. Optical gain selectively amplifies the high-quality modes of the passive system. For these modes, the in-plane and out-of-plane leakage rates may be automatically balanced in the presence of disorder. The spontaneous optimization of in-plane and out-of-plane confinement of light in a photonic crystal slab may lead to a reduction of the lasing threshold.