A surface-emitting 3D metal-nanocavity laser: proposal and theory

A novel three-dimensional (3D) metal-nanocavity (or nano-coin) semiconductor laser suitable for electrical injection is proposed and analyzed. Our design uses metals as both the cavity sidewall and the top/bottom reflectors (i. e., a fully metal encapsulated nanolaser) and maintains the surface-emitting nature. As a result of the large permittivity contrast between the dielectric and metal, the optical energy can be well-confined inside the metal nanocavity. With a proper design and the choice of the HE111 mode, which has the best top surface radiation pattern, a laser with a physical size smaller than 0.01 lambda(3)(0) is achievable at 1.55 mu m wavelength with a reasonable semiconductor gain at room temperature. We provide a detailed theoretical model starting from the waveguide analysis to full 3D structure simulations by taking into account both geometry and metal dispersion. We show a systematic procedure for analyzing this class of 3D metal-cavity (or nano-coin) lasers with discussions on the optimization of the performance such as light output power, threshold reduction, and output beam shaping. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America