Metal-cavity quantum-dot lasers with enhanced thermal performance

Abstract

We designed, fabricated, and characterized thermal performances of Fabry-Pérot quantum-dot lasers with both metal-coated and conventional dielectric waveguides. With proper design, metals, such as Ag, Au, Cu, and Al can function as a low loss waveguide wall as well as an efficient heat remover. Metal-cavity waveguide lasers showed excellent threshold and characteristic temperature working above 120 °C, while dielectric waveguide lasers ceased operation near 80 °C under the same conditions. The thermal analysis of these lasers showed that metal-cavity lasers have approximately 1.5 times higher thermal conductivity compared with those of the dielectric lasers. We believe that the metal-coating of waveguides and the proper selection of metal efficiently remove the heat from the active region and enable stable lasing operation at high temperature.

Confined Tamm Plasmon Lasers

“…In order to produce the optical feedback necessary to the lasing effect, different geometries have been developed such as distributed feedback structures, vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers, or photonic crystals . More recently, hybrid metal/dielectric structures have attracted large attention for the high confinement enabled by the metal − as well as for the plasmon they support. A “spaser” effect similar to the laser effect but involving plasmons was recently demonstrated , and different types of spasers have been proposed. − Beside the reduction of the size of the laser, the parallelization of the emitting structure compatible with an electrical excitation remains a key issue for numerous applications. , Tamm plasmon modes, recently demonstrated in the optical domain, , are good candidates for the fabrication of complex laser arrays and integrated devices for a wide number of applications ranging from the development of inorganic exciton-polaritons integrated circuit to the coherent control of the emission of metal–organic microcavities …”

Optical properties of semiconductor in planar plasmonic structures: strong coupling and lasing

“…Many recent works rely on semiconductor structures with a metallic cavity. These structures use the high confinement enabled by the metals to go toward the realization of electrically pumped microand nano-lasers integrated in optoelectronic devices [1][2][3][4].…”