Electrically driven nanobeam laser

Abstract

The realization of lasers as small as possible has been one of the long-standing goals of the laser physics and quantum optics communities. Among multitudes of recent small cavities, the one-dimensional nanobeam cavity has been actively investigated as one of the most attractive candidates for effective photon confinement thanks to its simple geometry. However, the current injection into the ultra-small nano-resonator without critically degrading the quality factor remains still unanswered. Here we report an electrically driven, one-dimensional, photonic-well, single-mode, room-temperature nanobeam laser whose footprint approaches the smallest possible value. The small physical volume of similar to 4.6 x 0.61 x 0.28 mu m(3) (similar to 8.2(lambda n(-1))(3)) was realized through the introduction of a Gaussian-like photonic well made of only 11 air holes. In addition, a low threshold current of similar to 5 mu A was observed from a three-cell nanobeam cavity at room temperature. The simple one-dimensional waveguide nature of the nanobeam enables straightforward integration with other photonic applications such as photonic integrated circuits and quantum information devices.