Multi-colour nanowire photonic crystal laser pixels.

ABSTRACT: Emerging applications such as solid-state lighting and display technologies require micro-scale vertically emitting lasers with controllable distinct lasing wavelengths and broad wavelength tunability arranged in desired geometrical patterns to form "super-pixels". Conventional edge-emitting lasers and current surface-emitting lasers that require abrupt changes in semiconductor bandgaps or cavity length are not a viable solution. Here, we successfully address these challenges by introducing a new paradigm that extends the laser tuning range additively by employing multiple monolithically grown gain sections each with a different emission centre wavelength. We demonstrate this using broad gain-bandwidth III-nitride multiple quantum well (MQW) heterostructures and a novel top-down nanowire photonic crystal nanofabrication. We obtain single-mode lasing in the blue-violet spectral region with a remarkable 60?nm of tuning (or 16% of the nominal centre wavelength) that is determined purely by the photonic crystal geometry. This approach can be extended to cover the entire visible spectrum.

SUBMITTER: Wright JB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3798884 | biostudies-other | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other