Control of light emission by 3D photonic crystals

Three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystals containing artificial point defects have been fabricated to emit light at optical communications wavelengths. They were constructed by stacking 0.7-micrometer-period gallium arsenide striped layers, resulting in a 3D "woodpile" photonic crystal. Indium-gallium arsenide-phosphide quantum-well layers emitting at a wavelength of 1.55 micrometers were incorporated in the center of the crystal. Samples having up to nine stacked layers were constructed, and artificial point-defect cavities of different sizes were formed in the light-emitting layer. Light emission was suppressed in the photonic crystal regions, whereas cavity modes were successfully observed at the point defects and were size dependent.