Comparison of electrically and optically pumped buried-heterostructure photonic crystal lasers

Energy-efficient and small-footprint light sources are required for realizing on-chip and chip-to-chip optical interconnects. Photonic crystal (PhC) based nanolasers are considered one of the most prominent candidates [1] , however, their properties are only partially explored. Here, we analyze the behavior of a heterogeneously integrated InP/Si PhC line-defect laser by comparing its Input-Output characteristic curves for electrical and optical pumping. The laser operates at room temperature with a wavelength near 1550 nm. Our analysis shows that the device exhibits a low threshold current of 22 μA and a high beta-factor of 0.06 which is on par with the recent advancements of the field [1] , [2] .