Abstract

A broad-surface-area vertical GaAs microcavity was operated as an adaptive holographic film. The cavity mirrors were transparent to high-energy (millijoules per square centimeter) hologram writing pulses at a wavelength of 730 nm that generated optically pumped gain gratings in a 1-µm-thick active layer of GaAs. The gain gratings were probed with a low-intensity (mW) tunable laser at wavelengths near the GaAs band edge in the high-reflectance bandwidth of the cavity Bragg mirrors. When the structure was designed with low mirror reflectances $[(R_1{R}_2{)}^{1/2}=90\%]$ to operate below the lasing threshold, the cavity resonance bandwidth was sufficiently broad to permit homogeneous hologram readout over a large (several square millimeters) area. Diffraction efficiencies of approximately 10% were predicted and approached experimentally. These results represent a first step toward the realization of a holographic vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser structure.

© 2001 Optical Society of America

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