Design of guided-mode resonance mirrors for short laser cavities.

ABSTRACT

A guided-mode resonance mirror (GMRM) consists of a waveguide grating integrated on an optical buffer layer on a high-reflection substrate. An incident free-space wave at the resonance wavelength is once coupled by the grating to a guided mode and coupled again by the same grating back to free space. The reflection characteristics of a GMRM are numerically calculated and theoretically analyzed. It is predicted that notch filtering or flat reflection spectra are obtained depending on the optical buffer layer thickness. Design of short cavities using a GMRM is discussed for potential application in surface-mount packaging of diode lasers onto a photonic circuit board.