Analysis of optically pumped equilateral triangular microlasers with three mode-selective trenches.

Semiconductor laser devices based on triangular resonators can provide cheap, compact, and high performance optical sources for optical communications, computing, defense, and biological applications. I modify the original structure by introducing three trenches and analyze their effects on the electromagnetic modes propagating in the triangular cavity. I also analyze the coupling of light into single-mode waveguides. These analyses are conducted by using two-dimensional finite difference time-domain methods. Results show that the introduction of such trenches can considerably reduce the quality factors of most of the modes, but one mode is not significantly degraded, providing nearly single-mode operation. The effects of radiation losses are further investigated by introducing a photonic crystal shielding around the triangular structure. Finally I solve the rate equations to obtain the steady-state response for these structures.