Giant gain enhancement in photonic crystals with a degenerate band edge

Mohamed A. K. Othman, Farshad Yazdi, Alex Figotin, and Filippo Capolino
Phys. Rev. B 93, 024301 – Published 11 January 2016

Abstract

We propose a new approach leading to giant gain enhancement. It is based on unconventional slow-wave resonance associated with a degenerate band edge (DBE) in the dispersion diagram for a special class of photonic crystals supporting four modes at each frequency. We show that the gain enhancement in a Fabry-Pérot cavity (FPC) when operating at the DBE is several orders of magnitude stronger when compared to a cavity of the same length made of a standard photonic crystal with a regular band edge (RBE). The giant gain condition is explained by a significant increase in the photon lifetime and in the local density of states. We have demonstrated the existence of DBE operated special cavities that provide for superior gain conditions for solid-state lasers, quantum cascade lasers, traveling wave tubes, and distributed solid-state amplifiers. We also report the possibility to achieve low-threshold lasing in FPC with DBE compared to RBE-based lasers.

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  • Received 3 February 2015
  • Revised 5 October 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.024301

©2016 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Mohamed A. K. Othman1, Farshad Yazdi1, Alex Figotin2, and Filippo Capolino1,*

  • 1Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA
  • 2Department of Mathematics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA

  • *Corresponding author: f.capolino@uci.edu

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Vol. 93, Iss. 2 — 1 January 2016

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