Effect of nonradiative recombination on light emitting properties of two-dimensional photonic crystal slab structures

InGaAsP-based two-dimensional photonic crystal light emitting structures are fabricated by employing wafer fusion and characterized optically. The structure does not contain defect regions and the whole area of the photonic crystal is used for light generation and extraction. The effect of nonradiative recombination is studied as a function of pump power. The relative contribution of surface recombination can be as low as 10% as pump power increases since carrier recombination is dominated by Auger recombination. In spite of the large surface-to-volume ratio of the photonic crystal pattern, over four-fold enhancement of photoluminescence extraction efficiency is observed. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.