학술논문

III–V Semiconductor Whispering-Gallery Mode Micro-Cavity Lasers: Advances and Prospects
Document Type
Periodical
Source
IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics IEEE J. Quantum Electron. Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of. 58(4):1-18 Aug, 2022
Subject
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Photonics and Electrooptics
Laser modes
Semiconductor lasers
Q-factor
Optical resonators
Optical device fabrication
Waveguide lasers
Optical losses
III-V semiconductors
semiconductor lasers
whispering-gallery modes
silicon photonics
integrated optoelectronics
Language
ISSN
0018-9197
1558-1713
Abstract
III-V semiconductor lasers are ubiquitous in modern optoelectronic devices, with applications ranging from telecommunication to general lighting. Among the different kinds of laser cavity designs, whispering-gallery mode (WGM) micro-cavity lasers boast outstanding optical performance due to advantages such as ultra-high Q-factor, compact mode volume, and narrow emission linewidth. Over the past decades, research in III-V WGM micro-cavity lasers has progressed rapidly in various aspects, including the fabrication techniques, emission outcoupling methods, and practical applications. In this paper, a comprehensive review is performed on the advances in these aspects. Although III-V WGM lasers are conventionally fabricated with top-down approaches, recent reports have demonstrated the potential of highly-scalable bottom-up methods in fabricating low-loss WGM lasers. Despite the strong optical confinement in III-V WGM cavities, various techniques have been developed to either outcouple WGM emission into waveguides or direct it into free-space with small beam divergence. Finally, recent developments in different applications of III-V WGM micro-cavity lasers are discussed. Other than serving as integrated photonic components, III-V WGM lasers have also displayed exciting potential in other applications such as label-free sensing and the study of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED).