title: A surface-emitting 3D metal-nanocavity laser: proposal and theory.
abstract: A novel three-dimensional (3D) metal-nanocavity (or nano-coin) semiconductor laser suitable for electrical injection is proposed and analyzed. Our design uses metals as both the cavity sidewall and the top/bottom reflectors (i. e., a fully metal encapsulated nanolaser) and maintains the surface-emitting nature. As a result of the large permittivity contrast between the dielectric and metal, the optical energy can be well-confined inside the metal nanocavity. With a proper design and the choice of the HE111 mode, which has the best top surface radiation pattern, a laser with a physical size smaller than 0.01λ(0)(3) is achievable at 1.55 μm wavelength with a reasonable semiconductor gain at room temperature. We provide a detailed theoretical model starting from the waveguide analysis to full 3D structure simulations by taking into account both geometry and metal dispersion. We show a systematic procedure for analyzing this class of 3D metal-cavity (or nano-coin) lasers with discussions on the optimization of the performance such as light output power, threshold reduction, and output beam shaping.
authors: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors: Chien-Yao
authors: CY
authors: Lu
authors: Shun Lien
authors: SL
authors: Chuang
mesh_terms: D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D054023:Lasers, Semiconductor; D008029:Lighting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008670:Metals / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D008670:Metals