Electrically-driven Photonic Crystal Lasers with Ultra-low Threshold

Abstract: Light sources with ultra-low energy consumption and high performance are required to realize optical interconnects for on-chip communication. Photonic crystal (PhC) nanocavity lasers are one of the most promising candidates to fill this role. In this work, we demonstrate an electrically-driven PhC nanolaser with an ultra-low threshold current of 10.2 {\mu}A emitting at 1540 nm and operated at room temperature. The lasers are InP-based bonded on Si and comprise a buried heterostructure active region and lateral p-i-n junction. The static characteristics and the thermal properties of the lasers have been characterized. The effect of disorder and p-doping absorption on the Q-factor of passive cavities was studied. We also investigate the leakage current due to the lateral p-i-n geometry by comparing the optical and electrical pumping schemes.