Experimental Investigation of an L-Shaped Very-Small-Aperture Laser

An L-shaped very-small-aperture laser (VSAL) with high power output and field enhancement effect is fabricated and characterized. As a comparison, a conventional rectangular VSAL and a double-aperture VSAL containing one L-aperture and one rectangular aperture are also fabricated and measured. The confined optical fields in the vicinity of apertures of VSAL are detected using an apertured near-field scanning optical microscope. The experimental results reveal that the power output from the L-shaped VSAL increases about 13 times than the rectangular VSAL with a comparable aperture area. It is indicated that the L-shaped VSAL has strong power output enhancement effect. The near-field distribution of the double-aperture VSAL indicates that the L-aperture has the field confinement and enhancement effect stronger than the rectangular aperture.