Demonstration of a self-pulsing photonic crystal Fano laser

By Yi Yu, W. Xue, E. Semenova, K. Yvind, J. Mørk. Nature Photonics, 2016

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Fano interference and nonlinearity are exploited to achieve self-pulsing of a laser at gigahertz frequencies. The semiconductor lasers in use today rely on various types of cavity, making use of Fresnel reflection at a cleaved facet1, total internal reflection between two different media2, Bragg reflection from a periodic stack of layers3,4,5,6,7,8, mode coupling in a high contrast grating9,10 or random scattering in a disordered medium11. Here, we demonstrate an ultrasmall laser with a mirror, which is based on Fano interference between a continuum of waveguide modes and the discrete resonance of a nanocavity. The rich physics of Fano resonances12 has recently been explored in a number of different photonic and plasmonic systems13,14. The Fano resonance leads to unique laser characteristics. In particular, because the Fano mirror is very narrowband compared to conventional laser mirrors, the laser is single mode and can be modulated via the mirror. We show, experimentally and theoretically, that nonlinearities in the mirror may even promote the generation of a self-sustained train of pulses at gigahertz frequencies, an effect that has previously been observed only in macroscopic lasers15,16,17,18. Such a source is of interest for a number of applications within integrated photonics.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/44968f1d4c3b4b7adc579a74a300eb9022d5a1bd