Spectral and spatial modal control of photonic crystal broad area lasers

Photonic crystal structures have been used to improve modal properties of broad area semiconductor lasers in recent years. It has been demonstrated that the width of single-mode semiconductor laser can be increased by at least two orders of magnitude using the transverse Bragg reflection of two dimensional periodic nanostructures. In this talk, we will describe a photonic crystal structure to obtain the single mode operation of large-area, edge-emitting semiconductor lasers. Pulsed and CW operation of electrically pumped, single-mode photonic crystal broad area lasers (100 mu m wide and 550 mu m long) with single-lobe, diffraction-limited far-fields are experimentally demonstrated at room temperature. A wavelength tuning sensitivity 80 times smaller than a conventional DFB laser is also achieved for the photonic crystal Bragg laser.