Abstract

Dually modulated photonic-crystal surface-emitting lasers (DM-PCSELs) are a new type of semiconductor laser that enable on-chip, mechanical-free, high-power, high-beam-quality 2D beam scanning over a wide field of view. These lasers are attracting attention for application in light detection and ranging, and the improvement of their slope efficiency is desired for this application. Thus far, the highest experimentally demonstrated slope efficiency is approximately 0.4 W/A at wavelengths of around 940 nm, which was limited by the fact that roughly half of the laser light was emitted toward and absorbed by the backside electrode. In this work, in order to improve the slope efficiency of DM-PCSELs, we utilize the light emitted toward the backside of the device by introducing a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) as a backside reflector. In consideration of this laser’s ability to emit beams over a wide field of view, we design laser structures that facilitate a commensurate enhancement of efficiency at various emission angles. Next, we discuss the effect of the DBR on the confinement of transverse modes in thickness direction as well as the suppression of higher-order transverse modes. Then, we analyze the emission characteristics of a DM-PCSEL with a DBR and calculate that the theoretical slope efficiency is enhanced to 0.7–0.8 W/A, which is twice that of the device without a DBR, over a wide range of emission angles from 0° to 30°. We then fabricate the devices and experimentally demonstrate the emission of a single-lobed beam with a high slope efficiency of 0.7–0.8 W/A.

© 2023 Optica Publishing Group

Dually modulated photonic crystal lasers for wide-range flash illumination

Ryoichi Sakata, Menaka De Zoysa, Mayuka Yoshikawa, Takuya Inoue, Kenji Ishizaki, John Gelleta, Ranko Hatsuda, and Susumu Noda
Opt. Express 30(15) 26043-26056 (2022)

High-power and high-efficiency operation of 1.3 µm-wavelength InP-based photonic-crystal surface-emitting lasers with metal reflector

Yuhki Itoh, Takeshi Aoki, Kosuke Fujii, Hiroyuki Yoshinaga, Naoki Fujiwara, Kenshi Takada, Makoto Ogasawara, Yusuke Sawada, Hideki Yagi, Masaki Yanagisawa, Masahiro Yoshida, Takuya Inoue, Menaka De Zoysa, Kenji Ishizaki, and Susumu Noda
Opt. Express 32(7) 12520-12527 (2024)

Non-mechanical three-dimensional LiDAR system based on flash and beam-scanning dually modulated photonic crystal lasers

Menaka De Zoysa, Ryoichi Sakata, Kenji Ishizaki, Takuya Inoue, Masahiro Yoshida, John Gelleta, Yoshiyuki Mineyama, Tomoyuki Akahori, Satoshi Aoyama, and Susumu Noda
Optica 10(2) 264-268 (2023)

Design of double-lattice GaN-PCSEL based on triangular and circular holes

Qifa Liu, Minjia Meng, Shang Ma, and Meixin Feng
Opt. Express 31(26) 43615-43629 (2023)

High-power and high-beam-quality photonic-crystal surface-emitting lasers: a tutorial

Susumu Noda, Takuya Inoue, Masahiro Yoshida, John Gelleta, Menaka De Zoysa, and Kenji Ishizaki
Adv. Opt. Photon. 15(4) 977-1032 (2023)