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Updated: Apr 17, 2026
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Fabrication of Silica Ultra High Quality Factor Microresonators
Published on: July 2, 2012
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Subwavelength metallic cavities with high-Q resonance modes
Nagisa Ishihara1, Hiroyuki Kurosawa, Ryo Takemoto
1Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, 001-0020 Sapporo, Japan.
Nanotechnology
|February 5, 2015
Summary
Researchers achieved record high quality (Q) factors in metallic nanolasers, reaching ~6000 near room temperature. This breakthrough overcomes limitations of metal optical absorption for advanced nanolaser applications.
Area of Science:
- Optics
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Metallic cavities are crucial for developing small-volume nanocavities and nanolasers.
- Existing nanolasers suffer from low cavity-quality (Q) factors (up to ~500) due to metal optical absorption.
Purpose of the Study:
- To achieve and report the highest Q factors in metallic nanolasers.
- To analyze the temperature dependence of cavity modes and identify the underlying mechanisms.
- To explore the potential of these high-Q nanolasers for quantum information applications.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication and characterization of metallic cavities probed by sub-bandgap emission of Si-doped GaAs.
- Analysis of temperature dependence of cavity-mode resonance wavelengths.
- Finite-element method simulations to identify cavity modes.
Main Results:
- Observed highest Q factors of 9000 at low temperature and ~6000 near room temperature.
- Demonstrated that the refractive-index term dominates temperature dependence and is cavity-mode dependent.
- Identified a whispering gallery optical mode responsible for the high-Q factor.
- Showcased isotropic polarization dependence of output emission.
Conclusions:
- The developed metallic cavity design significantly enhances Q factors, overcoming previous limitations.
- The refractive-index analysis provides a novel method for cavity mode identification.
- The whispering gallery mode and isotropic polarization make these nanolasers promising for quantum information processing.
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