Design of Bottom-Emitting Metallic Nanolasers Integrated With Silicon-On-Insulator Waveguides

Author

Bo-Tsun Chou ; Tien-Chang Lu ; Sheng-Di Lin

Author_Institution

Nat. Chiao Tung Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan

Volume

33

Issue

10

fYear

2015

fDate

May15, 15 2015

Firstpage

2087

Lastpage

2092

Abstract

We propose and analyze a bottom-emitting metallic nanolaser with a cavity size smaller than one wavelength in three dimensions. We optimize the nanolaser performance by adjusting the thickness of SiNx insulator layer, pillar radius, p-cladding, and n-cladding layers. With a proper design, we can achieve the TE₀₁ mode lasing with an extremely small effective mode volume of 0.135 (λ₀/n)³ and an ultra low threshold gain of 247 cm^-1. The nanolaser is integrated with a silicon-on-insulator waveguide through a bottom-connected grating coupler. By properly modifying the grating coupler period, fill factor, shift position, and grating height, a high coupling efficiency of 88.5% can be acquired.

Keywords

diffraction gratings; integrated optoelectronics; laser cavity resonators; laser modes; nanophotonics; optical couplers; quantum well lasers; silicon compounds; silicon-on-insulator; waveguide lasers; SiN_x-Si; TE₀₁ mode lasing; bottom-connected grating coupler; bottom-emitting metallic nanolasers; cavity size; coupling efficiency; efficiency 88.5 percent; fill factor; grating coupler period; grating height; insulator layer thickness; mode volume; n-cladding layers; p-cladding layers; pillar radius; shift position; silicon-on-insulator waveguides; threshold gain; Cavity resonators; Couplings; Gratings; Optical coupling; Optical waveguides; Q-factor; Silver; Laser cavity resonators; Nanolaser; nanolaser; optical waveguides; photonic integrated circuits; quantum well lasers; silicon-on-insulator;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2015.2397889

Filename

7031861