Abstract
The optical properties of semiconductor quantum wells embedded in one-dimensional photonic crystal structures are analyzed by a self-consistent solution of Maxwell's equations and a microscopic many-body theory of the material excitations. For a field mode spectrally below the photonic band edge it is shown that the optical absorption and gain are enhanced, exceeding by more than 1 order of magnitude the values of a homogeneous medium. For the photonic crystal structure inside a microcavity the gain increases superlinearly with the number of wells and for more than five wells exceeds the gain of a corresponding vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 2039-2048 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of the Optical Society of America B: Optical Physics |
Volume | 22 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2005 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics