Investigation of possible microcavity effect on lasing threshold of nonradiative-scattering-dominated semiconductor lasers
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Author(s)
Kumar, Sushil
Hu, Qing
Date Issued
January 2012
Journal
Applied Physics Letters
Publisher
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Citation
Kumar, Sushil, and Qing Hu. “Investigation of Possible Microcavity Effect on Lasing Threshold of Nonradiative-Scattering-Dominated Semiconductor Lasers.” Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, no. 4 (2012): 041105. © 2012 American Institute of Physics
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Final published version
Abstract
The effect of enhanced rate of spontaneous emission on gain and lasing threshold of semiconductor microcavity lasers has not been discussed clearly. Some reports have suggested that the lasing threshold in microcavities could possibly be lowered due to the so-called Purcell effect. Here, we argue that gain in weakly coupled semiconductor cavities is a local phenomenon, which occurs due to stimulated emission induced by an electromagnetic excitation and remains unaffected by the cavityboundary conditions. Hence, the Purcell effect in microcavities filled uniformly with a gain medium should not lead to a reduction in the laser’s threshold pump density, provided radiative scattering is not the dominant relaxation mechanism in the excited state. A systematic experimental investigation of laser threshold in parallel-plate semiconductor microcavity terahertz quantum-cascade lasers of different dimensions was found to be in accordance with our arguments.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3678595
