High quality factor GaAs-based photonic crystal microcavities by epitaxial re-growth

We investigate L7 photonic crystal microcavities (PCMs) fabricated by epitaxial re-growth of GaAs pre-patterned substrates, containing InAs quantum dots. The resulting PCMs show hexagonal shaped nano-holes due to the development of preferential crystallographic facets during the re-growth step. Through a careful control of the fabrication processes, we demonstrate that the photonic modes are preserved throughout the process. The quality factor (Q) of the photonic modes in the re-grown PCMs strongly depends on the relative orientation between photonic lattice and crystallographic directions. The optical modes of the re-grown PCMs preserve the linear polarization and, for the most favorable orientation, a 36% of the Q measured in PCMs fabricated by the conventional procedure is observed, exhibiting values up to ~6000. The results aim to the future integration of site-controlled QDs with high-Q PCMs for quantum photonics and quantum integrated circuits.