Abstract
We demonstrate the idea of surface-assisted microstructures to tailor the modes and resulting emission from a dynamical localized vertical cavity surface emitting laser at room temperature. With a slightly mismatch between the surface structure and the native oxide cavity layer, near field intensity images corresponding to the spontaneous emission patterns, whispering-gallery modes (WGMs), dynamical localized modes (DLMs), and unidirectional light emissions are measured and identified in experiments and simulations. Moreover, the coherent superposition of WGM and DLM, i.e., stable and unstable periodic orbits, respectively, is reported to provide an alternative and general method to control lasing characteristics as well as to study quantum chaos in mesoscopic system. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.