Larger-area single-mode photonic crystal surface-emitting lasers enabled by an accidental Dirac point

By altering the lattice geometry of the photonic crystal (PhC) surface-emitting lasers (PCSELs), we tune the regular lasing band edges of quadratic dispersions to form a single accidental Dirac point of linear dispersion at the Brillouin zone center. This not only increases the mode spacing by orders of magnitude but also eliminates the distributed in-plane feedback to enable single-mode PCSELs of substantially larger area and thus substantially higher output power. The advantages of using accidental Dirac cones are systematically evaluated through two-dimensional in-plane calculations and confirmed by three-dimensional simulations of PhC slab devices.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (MRSEC Program, award no. DMR-0819762)United States. Army Research Office. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (Contract W911NF-13-D-0001)United States. Dept. of Energy (MIT S3TEC Energy Research Frontier Center, Grant No. DE-SC0001299)Spain. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Ramon-y-Cajal program, Grant No. RyC-2009-05489