Abstract

Enhancement of spontaneous emission coupling (β) into the lasing mode has promised significant reductions in lasing thresholds and absolute intensity noise for microcavity lasers [1,2]. This control is typically achieved by employing high finesse, wavelength scale resonators. Measurements of β have been made in optically pumped devices with various resonator geometries: These include planar DBR resonators (β=0.009 at 4 K [2]), large-diameter post resonators (β=0.004 at 4 K [2]), hemispherical microcavities (β=0.01 at 4 K [3]) and micro-disk lasers (β=0.23 at 77 K [4]). This paper reports the first measurements of β in electrically pumped vertical cavity devices as well as the first measurement of β in surface emitting lasers with strong transverse photon confinement.

© 1995 Optical Society of America