Abstract

We have characterized electron-hole recombination and the spontaneous and stimulated emission properies of photo-pumped photonic lattices formed by etching periodic unit cells in epitaxial (Al,Ga)As semiconductor microcavities. The lattices were fabricated by the conjunction of molecular beam epitaxy, photo/electron-beam lithography, and reactive ion beam etching. A variety of lattices corresponding to different cell shapes, sizes (2-7 μm), and spacings (0.2 to 2 μm) were investigated. Stable lasing modes were observed for arrays with high lattice gain factors (0.8 to 1.0) and cell Fresnel numbers between 2 and 6. These lattices had a lasing threshold that exhibited a minimum at 270 to 290 K, where the optical modes and electron-hole recombination were studied. The far field emission in these lattices provides a direct mapping of the optical Bloch waves in the lattice and shows evidence for inhibited emission at the Bragg condition where a photonic band gap is predicted. The electron-hole recombination time for GaAs lattices varied from 200 to 400 ps as the cell spacing increased from 0.2 to 1.0 μm.

© 1992 Optical Society of America