Room temperature low-threshold InAs/InP quantum dot single mode photonic crystal microlasers at 1.5 microm using cavity-confined slow light.

We have designed, fabricated, and characterized an InP photonic crystal slab structure that supports a cavity-confined slow-light mode, i.e. a bandgap-confined valence band-edge mode. Three dimensional finite difference in time domain calculations predict that this type of structure can support electromagnetic modes with large quality factors and small mode volumes. Moreover these modes are robust with respect to fabrication imperfections. In this paper, we demonstrate room-temperature laser operation at 1.5 mum of a cavity-confined slow-light mode under pulsed excitation. The gain medium is a single layer of InAs/InP quantum dots. An effective peak pump power threshold of 80 microW is reported.