Operation of photonic crystal lasers for substrate temperatures as high as 50°C is reported. The temperature dependence of the lasing wavelength and the threshold pump power is also investigated. The characteristic temperature T o is 37.7 K. © 2002 American Institute of Physics. ͓DOI: 10.1063/1.1517409͔As a promising source for optical communication systems and integrated photonic circuits, the research on twodimensional ͑2D͒ photonic crystal defect lasers has been attracting increasing attention. Single-defect photonic crystal lasers were first demonstrated in pulsed mode at low temperatures.1 Room-temperature pulsed operation has since been demonstrated in lasers with larger mode volumes, [2][3][4][5] and continuous wave room-temperature operation has been reported in a photonic crystal laser with a fusion bonded substrate that had a layer that was subsequently converted to Al x O y . 6 Here, we present the experimental results of pulsed operation of optically pumped photonic crystal lasers above room temperature and characterize the thermal behavior of these lasers.The resonant cavity is formed by removing 19 air holes from a 2D triangular lattice photonic crystal patterned into a semiconductor membrane, which consists of four 10 nm compressively strained InGaAsP quantum wells as the gain media. The laser structure is fabricated by perforating holes through the 224 nm thick membrane by a series of dry etching and wet chemical etching steps.7 Figure 1 shows a scanning electron micrograph of the oblique view of a column of laser structures with a V-shaped undercut groove.The fabricated sample is mounted on a piece of copper, which is fixed onto a Peltier thermal electric cooler ͑TEC͒ with a heat sink attached. The assembly is then mounted on an X -Y -Z stage. A 10 k⍀ thermistor is used to monitor the temperature of the sample. The temperature is controlled by a temperature controller, which has a stability of Ϯ0.004°C. The membrane defect cavity is optically pumped by an 865 nm top-emitting vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser ͑VC-SEL͒ at normal incidence. A pump spot size of approximately 4.5 m is achieved using a long working distance 100ϫ objective lens. A multimode fiber is used to collect the light output from the defect laser and is connected to an optical spectrum analyzer for characterization.The spontaneous emission spectrum of an unpatterned area ͑without air holes and undercut structure͒ shows a broad spectral emission peaked at 1.55 m with a full width at half maximum of 200 nm after the device fabrication process. When the pump beam is moved to and focused onto the defect cavity, we can expect that the temperature of the defect cavity will be higher due to low thermal conductivity of the air region below the membrane. As a result, the gain spectrum shifts to longer wavelength and so does the lasing wavelength.To predict the temperature of the defect cavity under optical pumping, a heat transfer analysis using finite element method is performed. Here, we simulate heat conduction of the photonic cr...