Dispersion Engineering for Vertical Microcavities Using Subwavelength Gratings

We show that the energy-momentum dispersion of a vertical semiconductor microcavity can be modified by design using a high-index-contrast subwavelength grating (SWG) as a cavity mirror. We analyze the angular dependence of the reflection phase of the SWG to illustrate the principles of dispersion engineering. We show examples of engineered dispersions such as ones with much reduced or increased energy density of states and one with a double-well-shaped dispersion. This method of dispersion engineering is compatible with maintaining a high cavity quality factor and incorporating fully protected active media inside the cavity, thus enabling the creation of new types of cavity quantum electrodynamics systems.