Second harmonic generation in photonic crystal cavities in (111)-oriented GaAs

We demonstrate second harmonic generation at telecommunications wavelengths in photonic crystal cavities in (111)-oriented GaAs. We fabricate 30 photonic crystal structures in both (111)and (100)-oriented GaAs and observe an increase in generated second harmonic power in the (111) orientation, with the mean power increased by a factor of 3, although there is a large scatter in the measured values. We discuss possible reasons for this increase, in particular, the reduced two photon absorption for transverse electric modes in (111) orientation, as well as a potential increase due to improved mode overlap. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.