Study on transition from photonic-crystal laser to random laser

The dependence of the lasing threshold on the amount of positional disorder in photonic crystal structures is newly studied by means of the finite element method, not of the finite difference time domain method usually used. A two-dimensional model of a photonic crystal consisting of dielectric cylinders arranged on a triangular lattice within a circular region is considered. The cylinders are assumed to be homogeneous and infinitely long. Positional disorder of the cylinders is introduced to the photonic crystals. Optically active medium is introduced to the interspace among the cylinders. The population inversion density of the optically active medium is modeled by the negative imaginary part of dielectric constant. The ratio between radiative power of electromagnetic field without amplification and that with amplification is computed as a function of the frequency and the imaginary part of the dielectric constant, and the threshold of the imaginary part, namely population inversion density for laser action is obtained. These analyses are carried out for various amounts of disorder. The variation of the lasing threshold from photonic-crystal laser to random laser is revealed by systematic computations with numerical method of reliable accuracy for the first time. Moreover, a novel phenomenon, that the lasing threshold have a minimum against the amount of disorder, is found. In order to investigate the properties of the lasing states within the circular system, the distributions of the electric field amplitudes of the states are also calculated. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America