Free-Standing GaN-Based Photonic Crystal Band-Edge Laser

We report the fabrication of a GaN-based membrane-type photonic crystal (PC) band-edge laser (BEL) that requires a smaller PC active area than previous designs due to strong field confinement. A honeycomb-lattice PC was designed such that the Gamma(1) monopole band-edge mode fell within the emission band of InGaN quantum wells. The BEL exhibited pulsed lasing at room-temperature when optically pumped above its threshold pump energy density of similar to 15.5 mJ/cm(2). Based on polarization angle analysis, we confirmed that the BEL indeed lased at the Gamma(1) monopole band-edge mode.