Experimental Characterization of the Optical Loss of Sapphire-Bonded Photonic Crystal Laser Cavities

M. H. Shih, University of Southern California
Wan Kuang, Boise State University
Tian Yang, University of Southern California
Mahmood Bagheri, University of Southern California
Zhi-Jian Wei, University of Southern California
Sang-Jun Choi, University of Southern California
Ling Lu, University of Southern California
J. D. O'Brien, University of Southern California
P. D. Dapkus, University of Southern California

Abstract

Sapphire-bonded photonic crystal laser cavities with varying number of photonic crystal periods were studied in order to determine the optical loss in these cavities. The lasing threshold increases as the number of lattice periods decreases, and the quality factors of these cavities were calculated from the lasing threshold data. Continuous-wave operation was achieved for cavities with eight or more cladding periods