Electrically-driven Photonic Crystal Lasers

The rising demand for integrated optical communication and data processing solutions is fueling the advancement of on-chip photonic components that are ultra-compact and energyefficient. A critical element of this endeavor is the development of high-performance smallfootprint light sources that can be integrated onto silicon. Among various on-chip sources, heterogeneously-integrated photonic crystal lasers are gaining momentum as a promising solution for on-chip applications. This thesis is focused on the demonstration and investigation of electrically-driven photonic crystal nanolasers based on the InP-on-Si platform. The properties of the photonic crystal laser cavities are investigated, focusing on the disorder- and doping-induced optical losses. The static and dynamic properties of the nanolasers are studied. Importantly, the current leakage was identified as the primary performance-limiting factor. Pushing for even greater miniaturization, lasers with ultra-small active regions were fabricated, achieving a sub-μA threshold current – the lowest laser threshold to date. The thesis concludes with the study of the Fano laser, a novel type of photonic crystal laser.