High-brightness mid-infrared photonic-crystal distributed-feedback lasers

The far-field emission and spectral characteristics of a photonic-crystal distributed-feedback (PCDFB) laser with an antimonide type-II ‘W’ active region were studied theoretically and experimentally. A 2nd-order grating was defined on a 2D rectangular lattice tilted by 20° relative to the facet normal, using optical lithography and dry etching. For pulsed optical pumping, the emission line centred on λ = 4.6–4.7 μm was up to an order of magnitude narrower (7–10 nm) than those of Fabry-Pérot and angled-grating DFB (α-DFB) lasers fabricated from the same wafer. The PCDFB beam quality was also substantially enhanced, for example, by a factor of 5 compared to the α-DFB at a pump-stripe width of 200 μm. Theoretical simulations based on a self-consistent time-domain Fourier-transform simulation confirm significant advantages of the PCDFB laser over an α-DFB geometry.