Photonic crystal horizontally slotted nanobeam cavity for silicon-based nanolasers

Abstract

We theoretically propose and investigate a TM-polarized one-dimensional photonic crystal nanocavity with a horizontal SiO2 slot on a suspended silicon nanobeam via the three-dimensional finite-element method. The ultrahigh quality factor and ultrasmall effective mode volume of 1.5 x 10(7) and 0.176 half-wavelength cubic of the horizontally SiO2-slotted nanocavity show strong possibilities for realizing an erbium-doped SiO2 nanolaser. This horizontal SiO2 slot structure can be precisely formed via the sputtering process and further transformed into an air slot via selective wet etching for optical index and biomolecule sensing. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America