Etude de cavités membranaires GaAs à autocollimation

Self-collimation allows to propagate a light beam without any lateral spreading and in the absence of any optical waveguide. This thesis deals with the design of self-collimation cavities on GaAs membrane to demonstrate a new generation of laser cavity emitting around 1 µm. The first part is a theoretical study of self-collimation photonic crystal with a square lattice. A plane wave model is developed to simulate the propagation of modes in this photonic crystal. The design, beaming properties, spectral and spatial selectivity of a self-collimation cavity are analyzed. The second part evaluates the fabrication of a GaAs membrane containing this self-collimation photonic crystal. This work involves the development of a specific method of masking and RIE etching. A second part focuses on minimizing the degradation of the active material induced by RIE etching. On this point, a ballistic model was developed to estimate the optimal etching time to reduce the generated defects. Some leads of electronic passivation post-process based on sulfides and nitrides are also discussed.