Room temperature continuous wave operation of

a surface-emitting two-dimensional
photonic crystal diode laser
Dai Ohnishi a), b), Takayuki Okano a), Masahiro Imada a) and Susumu Noda a)
a) Department of Electronic Science and Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto-Daigaku-Katsura, Nishikyo-ku,
Kyoto 615-8510, Japan
b) Optical Device Research and Development Center, ROHM Co., Ltd. 21 Mizosaki-cho Saiin, Ukyo-ku,
Kyoto 615-8585, Japan

[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract: We achieved room temperature continuous wave operation of a

surface-emitting two-dimensional photonic crystal diode laser by current
injection. This is the first time ever that room temperature continuous wave
operation of a photonic crystal diode laser has been realized. This laser
features single mode oscillation over a large area, which is impossible for
conventional lasers. In this work, we optimized the epitaxial layer
composition for better carrier confinement and clarified the relationship
between the diameter of the air holes in the photonic crystal and the
threshold current of the laser in order to estimate the optimized threshold
current.
©2004 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (140.2020) Diode lasers; (250.7270) Vertical emitting lasers

References and Links

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#3975 - $15.00 US Received 4 March 2004; revised 26 March 2004; accepted 9 April 2004
(C) 2004 OSA 19 April 2004 / Vol. 12, No. 8 / OPTICS EXPRESS 1562
1. Introduction
Photonic crystals [1-3], which have a periodic refractive index change, possess great potential
for realizing new optical devices. The photonic band-gap is a well-known property of
photonic crystals that allows them to block light waves selectively. Many types of two-
dimensional (2D) photonic crystal lasers, such as defect-mode lasers using the photonic band-
gap and artificially-introduced defects [4] or multi-directional distributed feedback (DFB)
lasers [5,6] have been demonstrated. In particular, surface-emitting 2D photonic crystal lasers
[5] (Fig. 1) are operated by current injection and have the capability for single mode
oscillation over a broad area due to the 2D DFB effect. Broad-area lasers have several
advantages, not only in terms of high output power and heat sinking, but they also exhibit a
narrow divergence angle.
Surface emitting region Electrode

p-GaAs CONTACT LAYER

p-AlGaAs CLADDING LAYER WAFER B

GaAs SCH LAYER with 2D SQUARE

LATTICE PHOTONIC CRYSTAL
FUSED
InGaAs ACTIVE LAYER
GaAs SCH LAYER WAFER A
n-AlGaAs CLADDING LAYER
n-GaAs SUBSTRATE

Fig.1.Schematic diagram of the device structure.

Surface Emission

-90º +90º

Γ-X
0º 180º
cavity
Γ-M

(a) (b)
Fig. 2. (a) Schematic of a square lattice photonic crystal. The two narrow arrows indicate two
particular directions Γ-X and Γ-M, and the broad arrows indicate propagating light waves. (b)
Schematic showing the propagating directions of the coupled waves.

Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of a laser cavity composed of a 2D square lattice

photonic crystal structure whose pitch in the Γ-X direction corresponds to one lasing
wavelength, and in Fig. 2(a), one arrow corresponds to one wavelength. When the light wave
propagating in one specific Γ-X direction (0º) is considered, the light wave is diffracted to the
reverse direction (180º) by Bragg diffraction. The light wave is also diffracted in two other Γ-
X directions (+90º and -90º) as shown in Fig. 2(a) because they also satisfy the Bragg
diffraction condition. Consequently, light waves propagating in four equivalent Γ-X directions
are coupled with each other, and a 2D large area cavity is formed. In addition, the light wave
is also diffracted toward the vertical direction by first-order Bragg diffraction, as shown in Fig.

#3975 - $15.00 US Received 4 March 2004; revised 26 March 2004; accepted 9 April 2004
(C) 2004 OSA 19 April 2004 / Vol. 12, No. 8 / OPTICS EXPRESS 1563
2(b). Therefore, this device works as a surface-emitting laser. As mentioned above, the
electromagnetic field distribution of the laser is determined by the photonic crystal structure.
Coherent single-mode lasing oscillation over a large area can therefore be achieved by this
laser, a phenomenon that has not been realized by conventional lasers. In fact, we successfully
demonstrated large-area single mode oscillation (over 500 µm) with narrow beam divergence
[5] in our previous work. Furthermore, we can control the oscillation mode of the laser by
careful design of the photonic crystal structure. For example, unification of the lasing
polarization could be realized by a photonic crystal structure with an elliptic lattice point
located on a square lattice position [7].
The basic characteristics of the device as a semiconductor diode laser have also been
improved. A remarkable reduction in the laser threshold current was successfully realized by
reducing the distance between the active layer and the photonic crystal layer to make the 2D
photonic crystal effect stronger [8]. The threshold current in this case is 1/25 of the value that
we measured in our previous work [5,7]. Consequently, continuous wave (CW) operation by
current injection was achieved [8]. However, the operating temperature was below -20ºC, due
to carrier overflow from the active layer. In this work, to produce an increase in the operating
temperature of the laser, we confined carriers into the active layer by using a higher band gap
AlGaAs layer (aluminum composition: 0.30), which was introduced between the
InGaAs/GaAs active layer and the photonic crystal layer. Consequently, the temperature
characteristics of the laser are improved and the realization of CW operation at temperatures
up to room temperature (RT) can be expected. In addition, it is known that the size of the air
holes in the photonic crystal affects the characteristics of photonic crystal devices [9], though
their effect on a laser of this type has not clarified so far. Therefore, in this work, the
relationship between the relative volume occupied by the photonic crystal air holes, (known as
the air-filling factor) and the threshold current of the laser is revealed, along with
improvements in the processing technique.
2. Design and fabrication

Energy gap p-AlGaAs CLADDING LAYER

GaAs/GaAs INTERFACE of
WAFER BONDING
AlGaAs SUB-CLADDING LAYER
InGaAs/GaAs (Aluminum Composition : 0.25 or 0.30)
TQWs
e-
e- e- ELECTRONS
e- e-
e-

n-AlGaAs CLADDING LAYER

Fig. 3. Schematic conduction band diagram of the layer structure near the active layer.

Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of the lasers fabricated in this work. Two types of wafers
(labeled A and B) were prepared. Wafers of type-A consisted of an n-type Al0.4Ga0.6As
cladding layer, three InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells (TQWs), GaAs separate confinement
heterostructure (SCH) layers with an additional AlGaAs layer on an n-type GaAs substrate.
The schematic conduction band diagram of the epitaxial layer structure near the active layers

#3975 - $15.00 US Received 4 March 2004; revised 26 March 2004; accepted 9 April 2004
(C) 2004 OSA 19 April 2004 / Vol. 12, No. 8 / OPTICS EXPRESS 1564
is shown in Fig. 3. The additional AlGaAs layer above the TQWs layer is tentatively named
the ‘sub-cladding layer’ in this paper. We prepared and fabricated two variants of wafer A,
where the only difference between the wafers was in the aluminum composition of the sub-
cladding layer. One was Al0.25Ga0.75As, while the other was Al0.30Ga0.70As, and we expected to
observe a difference in the carrier confinement effect between these two wafers. In our
previous work [8], only device characteristics for a sub-cladding layer consisting of
Al0.25Ga0.75As were reported.
Wafers of type-B consisted of a GaAs SCH layer, a p-type Al0.4Ga0.6As cladding layer, a
GaAs contact layer and an AlGaAs etch stop layer on a p-type GaAs substrate. Air rods (an
essential element of the 2D photonic crystal) were formed on wafer A by electron beam
lithography and plasma etching. To obtain the as-designed diameter of the photonic crystal,
we changed our previous method of drawing hole patterns on resist by electron beam
lithography from painting out circular patterns one by one to plotting one dot per each circle.
Furthermore, we used inductively-coupled plasma etching for the plasma etching process
because we could more easily obtain vertical and uniform photonic crystal air holes and lower
sidewall roughness [10] with this technique compared with the reactive ion etching process.
The arrangement of the air rods was a square lattice with a depth of about 100 nm. The depth
and the distribution of the photonic crystal were determined in order to obtain a coupling
coefficient κ [11] of over 1000 cm-1 with sufficient optical confinement in the active layer [8].
The lattice constant was 286.25 nm, which is equal to the lasing wavelength in the material.
After the formation of the photonic crystal, one each of wafers A and B were stacked and
fused at high temperature, as shown in Fig. 1. The p-type GaAs substrate and the AlGaAs etch
stop layer were removed by a mechanical lapping process and chemical etching. After that, an
insulating layer of silicon nitride and a square-shaped Ti/Au electrode whose side length was
50 µm, were formed on the surface of the exposed p-type GaAs contact layer.
After all of these processes, we made an analysis of the devices by secondary ion mass
spectrometry (SIMS). The thickness (20 nm) and the aluminum composition of the
Al0.25Ga0.75As and Al0.30Ga0.70As sub-cladding layers were confirmed as meeting the design
criteria. Therefore, the sub-cladding layer was not thin enough for carriers to overflow by the
tunneling effect and the band gap was as expected, which would not have been the case if
aluminum diffused during the wafer fusion process at high temperature.
3. Results and discussion

2
NORMALIZED I th

Al : 0.25
1.5 Al : 0.30

0.5
10 20 30 40
o
50
TEMPERATURE ( C)
Fig. 4. Temperature characteristic of the devices under pulsed conditions (1kHz-500ns).

#3975 - $15.00 US Received 4 March 2004; revised 26 March 2004; accepted 9 April 2004
(C) 2004 OSA 19 April 2004 / Vol. 12, No. 8 / OPTICS EXPRESS 1565
Figure 4 shows the differences in the temperature characteristics of the two devices that had
Al0.25Ga0.75As and Al0.30Ga0.70As as their sub-cladding layers, measured under pulsed
conditions. The threshold current measured at various temperatures is divided by the value of
the threshold current of each device at 20°C. The only difference between two devices is the
aluminum composition of the sub-cladding layer, and the devices have roughly the same peak
wavelength for spontaneous emission (940 nm) and the same lasing wavelength (957 nm),
which is determined by the pitch of the photonic crystal at 20°C. The lasing wavelength is
determined by grating pitch, just as it is for DFB lasers or photonic crystal lasers. In general,
gain peak moves from short to long wavelength about three times as fast as the lasing
wavelength with increasing ambient temperature. According to this logic, the gain peak closes
in on the lasing wavelength with increasing ambient temperature, so the normalized threshold
current should decrease. Since the normalized threshold current does not decrease with
increasing ambient temperature in the case of the Al: 0.25 device, it is clear that carriers must
be overflowing from the active layer. It is also clear that carriers overflowed from the active
layer in our previous work [8] according to the results as shown in Fig. 4. In addition, the
most probable dissipation route for overflowed carriers is considered to be heat generation due
to non-radiative recombination at in-plane crystal defects on the wafer-bonding interface.
Heat generation near the active layer makes matters worse, since other carriers can then
overflow more easily from the active layer to the wafer-bonding interface. On the other hand,
inhibition of carrier overflow from the active layer is realized by the Al0.30Ga0.70As sub-
cladding layer, since the normalized threshold current of this device decreases with increasing
ambient temperature, as we expected. Therefore, we measured the laser characteristics of the
device with the Al0.30Ga0.70As sub-cladding layer under CW mode at RT.

4
OUTPUT POWER (mW)

RT-CW RT-CW
INTENSITY (a.u.)

0
950 955 960 965 970 0 50 100
WAVELENGTH (nm) CURRENT (mA)
(a) (b)
Fig. 5. Lasing characteristics of the device under RT-CW condition. (a) Lasing spectrum. The
operation current was 70 mA. (b) Light output power-current characteristic.

The lasing spectrum and the light output power-current characteristic of the device under
CW condition at RT are shown in Figs. 5(a) and (b) respectively. According to Figs. 5(a) and
(b), lasing oscillation at 959.44 nm and light output power of over 4 mW under CW operation
at RT is successfully obtained with this device. Full width at half maximum of the spectrum
can be estimated to be 0.35 nm, which is determined by the resolution limit of our
measurement system. The threshold current was 65 mA.
The near-field pattern of the device as detected by a CCD camera is shown in Fig. 6(a).
The length of one side of the square-shaped electrode shown in the center of Fig. 6(a) is 50
µm, and this picture indicates that two-dimensional lasing oscillation is obtained in four

#3975 - $15.00 US Received 4 March 2004; revised 26 March 2004; accepted 9 April 2004
(C) 2004 OSA 19 April 2004 / Vol. 12, No. 8 / OPTICS EXPRESS 1566
equivalent Γ-X directions. The doughnut-shaped far field pattern of the device is shown in
Fig. 6(b). According to the far field pattern and the polarization characteristics of the device,

50µm
(a) (b)
Fig. 6. (a) Near field pattern and polarization characteristics of the device. The blue open
circles indicate the measurement points with a diameter of about 10 µm, and red double-headed
arrows show the direction of polarization at each point. The operating current was 76 mA. (b)
Far field pattern of the device. The operating current was 66 mA.

the transverse mode of the surface-emitted beam was the lowest order transverse electric
mode (TE01) in terms of propagation mode in the multimode optical fiber [12]. The mode
produced by this semiconductor laser is unique, and new applications for such a mode can be
expected. We can also choose the lasing mode by designing the photonic crystal structure [7],
which is one of the most important merits of this laser. The angle of divergence of the output
light was about 1.1°. Such a narrow divergence angle is also unique, and has similar
repercussions to the phenomenon described above.

10
NORMALIZED I th

0
0 10 20 30
AIR-FILLING FACTOR (%)
Fig. 7. Relationship between the air-filling factor and the normalized threshold current at 20ºC.

RT-CW operation of a photonic crystal laser was successfully demonstrated for the first
time, as described above. Next, we discuss the optimized threshold current of the laser. In this
work, we explicitly investigated the relationship between the air-filling factor and the
threshold current of the laser, and the experimental result for the Al0.25Ga0.75As sub-cladding
layer is shown in Fig. 7. The threshold currents are normalized along the lowest threshold

#3975 - $15.00 US Received 4 March 2004; revised 26 March 2004; accepted 9 April 2004
(C) 2004 OSA 19 April 2004 / Vol. 12, No. 8 / OPTICS EXPRESS 1567
current in Fig. 7 and the dashed line in Fig. 7 is a fitting curve of the experimental result. The
optimal region of the air-filling factor was between about 10% and 15%, as shown in Fig.7.
However, in the case of the device shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, the diameter obtained from the
cross-sectional scanning electron microscope image is about 133 nm, and the calculated air-
filling factor is about 17%. Although the designed diameter was smaller, diameter that was
outside of the optimal region was obtained due to mass transport during the wafer fusion
process at high temperature. When an air-filling factor is achieved that is within the optimal
region by optimizing the wafer-bonding conditions, including the fusion temperature, the
threshold current of the device with the Al0.30Ga0.70As sub-cladding layer can be reduced to
about 15 mA. This indicates the capacity for further reduction of the threshold current in this
device.
4. Summary
In summary, we have succeeded for the first time in operating a surface-emitting 2D photonic
crystal diode laser in CW mode at RT by current injection. We used an Al0.3Ga0.7As sub-
cladding layer between the active layer and the photonic crystal layer to block carriers into the
active layer. By using the sub-cladding layer, carriers are confined in the active layer and RT-
CW operation is successfully realized in this work. We also investigated the relationship
between the air-filling factor and the threshold current of the device experimentally, and
estimated the threshold current when the air-filling factor is optimized.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Dr. Masayuki Fujita, Mr. Shinpei Ogawa, Dr. Eiji Miyai, Mr.
Kyosuke Sakai, Mr. Takui Sakaguchi and Mr. Mitsuru Yokoyama for helpful discussions and
assistance. This work was partly supported by Core Research for Evolutional Science and
Technology - Japan Science and Technology Agency (CREST-JST), 21st Century COE
Program - Kyoto University, Kyoto Nanotechnology Cluster (Kyo-nano).

#3975 - $15.00 US Received 4 March 2004; revised 26 March 2004; accepted 9 April 2004
(C) 2004 OSA 19 April 2004 / Vol. 12, No. 8 / OPTICS EXPRESS 1568