Room temperature CW defect cavity photonic crystal membrane lasers metal bonded to substrate

Recent work has clearly demonstrated that bonding a photonic crystal (PhC) membrane on to a low-index substrate such as sapphire is a viable means to make lasers that operate continuous wave (CW) at room temperature. Though the substrate (which has a refractive index larger than that of air) reduces the quality (Q) factor, as compared to a suspended membrane, it also greatly increases the thermal conductivity, thereby reducing the temperature of the active medium . Many different bonding techniques have been used, including direct semiconductor-to-dielectric bonding , BCB bonding, and Au/In bonding. This paper demonstrates a simple metal-metal Van-der-Waals bonding method to bond an InGaAsP membrane active layer to a carrier substrate to produce a CW, room temperature, photo-pumped PhC laser. While previous reports have demonstrated graphite band-edge PhC lasers with a metal backing, defect cavity PhC lasers with a buried metal layer is reported.