Two-dimensional photonic crystal hexagonal waveguide ring laser

Hexagonal ring-type resonators defined by two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides are proposed and demonstrated. Lasing actions are observed from the photonic crystal ring resonator patterned on a free-standing slab with InGaAsP active layers emitting near 1.55 mum. For a ring resonator with 8-mum diameter, the threshold peak pump power is similar to3 mW. The quality factor of the ring resonator mode estimated from below-threshold linewidth shows that the sum of the propagation loss and the bending loss of the photonic crystal ring resonator is less than similar to260 cm(-1). The photonic crystal ring resonators can be used for the characterization of the optical losses in photonic crystal waveguides. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.