Abstract

The ability to modify the spontaneous emission of an atom in a micro-cavity has introduced a new degree of control which may have profound significance for opto-electronic devices¹. In compound semiconductors, distributed Bragg mirrors on the two sides of an active quantum well lead to narrow-band emission in the cavity mode². Generally, these cavities are optimized for normal incidence geometry, and the light is monitored perpendicular to the layers. However, at room temperature, and under strong pumping conditions, the light is emitted in a broad range of wavelengths. The presence of the microcavity causes each wavelength to be generated at a different angle and thus the narrow band emission wavelength changes with angle. In this work we show that micro-cavities can be optimized to emit at an angle that corresponds to a waveguide mode, and thus they can directly couple to an adjacent waveguide. Since the emission bandwidth depends directly on the cavity thickness, one can use a taper in the device to controllably generate many wavelengths into the same waveguide. Such a device could be used for multi-wavelength communication through the same optical fiber.

© 1995 Optical Society of America