Nano Stepping-Stone Laser

We report on a new type of photonic crystal laser structure, nano stepping-stones (NSSs), composed of a linear (or one-dimensional) chain of equally spaced discrete InAsP/InP multiple-quantum-well nanorods bonded onto a fused silica substrate. When optically pumped, the NSSs lased in a single band-edge mode with the polarization perpendicular to the direction along the NSSs. The cavity quality factor estimated from numerical simulations exceeded 10(4), and the measured threshold pump power density was as small as 285W/cm(2). Detailed emission spectra analyses confirmed that the lasing occurred at a photonic band-edge. (C) 2013 The Japan Society of Applied Physics