Novel spontaneous emission control using 3-dimensional photonic bandgap crystal cavity

A novel surface-emitting-laser diode consisting of a 3-dimensional (3D) photonic-bandgap-crystal cavity (PBGC) is proposed. Spontaneous emission is controlled so as to radiate into the lasing direction with a narrow radiation angle by introducing a plane phase shift region into the crystal. We analyze the radiation mode density in the PBGC-cavity with a plane-wave method by using a 3D-diamond photonic crystal cavity and demonstrate the resonant property of PBGC-cavity. It is shown that the radiation angle of spontaneous emission is as narrow as that of the stimulated emission of conventional verticalcavity surface-emitting-laser (VC-SEL). We show also that the spontaneous emission lifetime is two to three orders of magnitude larger in comparison with that of conventional laser.