QUANTUM BOXES AS ACTIVE PROBES FOR PHOTONIC MICROSTRUCTURES - THE PILLAR MICROCAVITY CASE

A GaAs/AlAs planar cavity containing a collection of InAs quantum boxe s in its core region has been grown in a single step by molecular beam epitaxy, and processed by electron-beam lithography and reactive ion etching into pillar microresonators. The optical study by photolumines cence of these localized light emitters allows a systematic and precis e determination of the energies of the first confined photon modes of such microstructures, in good agreement with theoretical estimates. Mo re generally, such probes facilitate the experimental study of the mod es of complex photonic microstructures and of the spontaneous emission alteration they entail on a quasimonochromatic light emitter. (C) 199 6 American Institute of Physics.