The photonic band edge laser: A new approach to gain enhancement

Dowling, Jonathan P.; Scalora, Michael; Bloemer, Mark J.; Bowden, Charles M.

doi:10.1063/1.356336

Cited by 620 publications

(368 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…An extensive analysis for a periodic PhC lattice shows that the gain scales with the density of optical states 16 . For a one-dimensional defect waveguide, based on qualitative considerations of the effective path length, Dowling et al 12 suggested a linear scaling of gain with group index. By expansion into Bloch waves, we derived the following approximate expression for the modal gain coefficient (see Supplementary Methods)…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The strength of the process is quantified by the gain coefficient per unit length, and is usually considered to be governed by the material properties. Dowling et al 12 suggested that the slow down of light near the edge of a one-dimensional photonic bandgap structure could be used to enhance the gain coefficient. The slow propagation of the Bloch mode near the band edge, which may be visualized as multiple back-and-forth scattering of the light beam, thus lengthens the local dwell time in the medium and increases the spatial but not the temporal gain coefficient 13 .…”

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confidence: 99%

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Slow-light-enhanced gain in active photonic crystal waveguides

Lunnemann

Chen

et al. 2014

Nat Commun

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Passive photonic crystals have been shown to exhibit a multitude of interesting phenomena, including slow-light propagation in line-defect waveguides. It was suggested that by incorporating an active material in the waveguide, slow light could be used to enhance the effective gain of the material, which would have interesting application prospects, for example enabling ultra-compact optical amplifiers for integration in photonic chips. Here we experimentally investigate the gain of a photonic crystal membrane structure with embedded quantum wells. We find that by solely changing the photonic crystal structural parameters, the maximum value of the gain coefficient can be increased compared with a ridge waveguide structure and at the same time the spectral position of the peak gain be controlled. The experimental results are in qualitative agreement with theory and show that gain values similar to those realized in state-of-the-art semiconductor optical amplifiers should be attainable in compact photonic integrated amplifiers.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Slow-light-enhanced gain in active photonic crystal waveguides

Lunnemann

Chen

et al. 2014

Nat Commun

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“…They can also be used in optical and microwave filters, delay lines, as well as for the enhancement of antenna gain and directionality. More detailed information can be found in an extensive literature on the subject (see, for example, [20,6,7,8,21,22,23,24,25], and references therein).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Slow-wave resonance in periodic stacks of anisotropic layers

Figotin

Vitebskiy

2007

Phys. Rev. A

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Abstract. We consider a Fabry-Perot resonance (a transmission band edge resonance) in periodic layered structures involving birefringent layers. In our previous publication [2] we have shown that the presence of birefringent layers with misaligned in-plane anisotropy can dramatically enhance the performance of the photonic-crystal resonator. It allows to reduce its size by an order of magnitude without compromising on its performance. The key characteristic of the enhanced slow-wave resonator is that the Bloch dispersion relation ω (k) of the periodic structure displays a degenerate photonic band edge, in the vicinity of which the dispersion curve can be approximated as ∆ω ∼ (∆k) 4 , rather than ∆ω ∼ (∆k) 2 . Such a situation can be realized in specially arranged stacks of misaligned anisotropic layers. On the down side, the presence of birefringent layers results in the slow wave resonance being coupled only with one (elliptic) polarization component of the incident wave, while the other polarization component is reflected back to space. In this paper we show how a small modification of the periodic layered array can solve the above fundamental problem and provide a perfect impedance match regardless of the incident wave polarization, while preserving the giant slow-wave resonance characteristic of a degenerate photonic band edge. Both features are of critical importance for many practical applications, such as the enhancement of various light-matter interactions, light amplification and lasing, optical and microwave filters, antennas, etc.

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“…Following the first experimental demonstration [2] and theoretical prediction [3] of photonic band edge lasing from dye-doped CLC, tremendous efforts have been concentrated on the development of low threshold and tunable lasing action with high efficiency. So far, reports have shown that low threshold laser action are readily observed not only in chiral nematic liquid crystal [4,5] but also in ferroelectric liquid crystal (smectic C Ã ) [6], blue phase liquid crystal [7], cholesteric polymer [8,9], cholesteric elastomer [10] and more recently cholesteric glasses [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Investigation of Laser Emission of Dye-Doped Cholesteric Liquid Crystals with a Cholesteric Reflector

Zhou

Huang

Rapaport

et al. 2006

Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals

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Dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) behaves like a one-dimensional photonic crystal laser when pumped by a second harmonic Nd-YAG pulsed laser. Usually circularly polarized laser light in the same sense as the cholesteric helix is emitted from both directions of the lasing cell. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate the laser emission enhancement and investigate the corresponding polarization state from the dye-doped CLC laser in stack with another CLC reflector. Cell gap and dye concentration are important factors affecting the optical efficiency of the CLC lasers.

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The photonic band edge laser: A new approach to gain enhancement

Cited by 620 publications

References 9 publications

Slow-light-enhanced gain in active photonic crystal waveguides

Slow-light-enhanced gain in active photonic crystal waveguides

Slow-wave resonance in periodic stacks of anisotropic layers

Experimental Investigation of Laser Emission of Dye-Doped Cholesteric Liquid Crystals with a Cholesteric Reflector

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