Room temperature continuous-wave lasing in photonic crystal nanocavity

We demonstrate room temperature continuous-wave laser operation at 1.3 mu m in a photonic crystal nanocavity with InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots by optical pumping. By analyzing a coupled rate equation and the experimental light-light characteristic plot, we evaluate the spontaneous emission coupling factor of the laser to be similar to 0.22. Three-dimensional carrier confinement and a low transparent carrier density due to volume effect in a quantum dot system play important roles in the cw laser operation at room temperature as well as a high quality factor photonic crystal nanocavity. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.