Wide-Angle Resonant Cavities for Superior Light Emitters

This proposal describes a program to determine the feasibility of forming an entirely new class of optical structures: wide-angle resonant cavities (WARCs). A WARC-structured light emitting diode would have "laser-like" high efficiency and modulation speeds. A WARC-structured vertical cavity laser would have low threshold currents and extremely high speeds. The device characteristics sought are similar to those motivating photonic bandgap research. However, the two approaches differ in that photonic bandgaps emphasize suppression of light emission in lateral directions, while the proposed WARCs are designed to enhance vertical emission. Phase I will investigate WARC structures via computer simulation. Every effort will be made to identify a WARC structure which is manufacturable at low cost and which will greatly improve device performance without compromising reliability. Another application for WARCs is for resonant detectors which are not sensitive to angular misalignment. An optional task is to fabricate and characterize actual WARCs of designs identified in Phase I .