Dynamics of quantum dot photonic crystal lasers

Quantum dot photonic crystal membrane lasers were fabricated and the large-signal modulation characteristics were studied. The authors find that the modulation characteristics of quantum dot lasers can be significantly improved using cavities with large spontaneous emission coupling factor. Their experiments show, and simulations confirm, that the modulation rate is limited by the rate of carrier capture into the dots to around 30 GHz in their present system. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.