Whispering gallery lasers on semi-insulating GaAs substrates

Abstract

Double heterostructure lasers are described in which light is guided by total internal reflection along a dielectric interface formed by the perimeter of an etched mesa. By means of the crowding effect, injection current is restricted to a narrow strip adjacent to the edge of the mesa. This results in the preferential excitation of optical modes which are localized in the vicinity of the dielectric interface. Both half-ring lasers formed at a single cleaved facet and quarter-ring lasers formed at a cleaved corner were fabricated.