A Raman silicon laser using a photonic crystal nanocavity

Abstract

Developing optical amplifiers or lasers in silicon-based materials is an important theme in silicon photonics because it promises to be useful in a wide range of applications. However, the realization has been very difficult because Si has an indirect energy bandgap that shows very low efficiency for radiative electron-hole recombination. Recently, a continuous wave Raman Si laser has been developed, and has attracted much attention. Here we report on a continuous-wave Raman silicon laser using a photonic-crystal high-Q nanocavity, which has a cavity size of less than 10 µm and an unprecedented low threshold of 1 µW.