Patent ID: 7242705

Claim:
A grating-outcoupled microcavity disk resonator, defining a plane and having a substantially smooth curved outer periphery, bounded by reflective walls, around and within which light can circulate, the resonator including: at least one buried grating region disposed in the plane of the grating-outcoupled microcavity disk resonator, the grating region serving to outcouple light circulating within the curved outer periphery into free space modes propagating out of the plane of the resonator; a first waveguide layer; a quantum-well active layer; a second waveguide layer on the other side of the quantum-well active layer from the first waveguide layer; and a first cladding layer on the other side of the first waveguide layer from the quantum-well active layer, the grating region formed in the vicinity of the interface between the first waveguide layer and the first cladding layer.