Abstract

Photonic crystal cavities (PhC) incorporating self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) are of interest for quantum information applications, optoelectronics and to study cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED). Unpolarized cavities will be required for some particular applications such as the creation of polarization-entangled quantum states. Although the H1 cavity is predicted to have an unpolarized fundamental mode, fabrication inaccuracies result in two linearly polarized modes, referred to in this work as M_x and M_y, with a typical wavelength splitting, ∆λ, of 1-2nm [1,2]. In this work we experimentally investigate the factors which affect the mode splitting and show that systematic fabrication errors can be compensated through careful design of the PhC. Theses results are supported by finite difference time domain (FDTD). In addition, we study the effect of uniaxial strain on this mode splitting in H1 planar PhC as a method of fine tuning the mode splitting.

© 2011 Optical Society of America