Observation of Enhanced Spontaneous Decay in 1-Μm-aperture Microcavities with InGaAlAs Quantum Dot Active Regions

Enhanced spontaneous decay rates are observed in 1 μm microcavity structures with both etched and oxidized apertures. The enhanced decay rate is found to track the individual transverse aperture modes of each structure. The decay rate on the aperture modes of the oxide confined structure was ∼2.3 times greater than the free space spontaneous emission rate. The enhancement observed in the etched aperture device was only a factor of 1.37.