Nanostructured Semiconductor Lasers

Developments in semiconductor nanotechnology have allowed the experimental realization of a new generation of semiconductor lasers with cavity sizes on the scale of the optical wavelength or smaller. Such semiconductor nanolasers present new opportunities in information technology with extremely low energy consumption, e.g. for on-chip optical communications. As the characteristic dimensions of the laser shrink to the nanoscale, assumptions that hold well for macroscopic semiconductor lasers must be revisited. The paper presents recent progress on semiconductor nanolasers, specifically emphasizing three topics: photonic crystal nanolasers with ultra-low threshold, semiconductor lasers with deep subwavelength light confinement, and semiconductor Fano lasers.