A pillar-array based two-dimensional photonic crystal microcavity

Experimental results are presented for a high quality factor cavity based on pillar arrays. The cavity is formed from a square lattice of silicon pillars of finite height. The quality factor of the fundamental mode is about 7300 when the cavity is in air and 7800 when it is immersed in water. Since a pillar array has a large percent of connected void space and confines TM modes effectively, it has great promise for use in numerous areas including biochemical sensing and quantum cascade lasers.