III-nitride tunable cup-cavities supporting quasi whispering gallery modes from ultraviolet to near infrared

Rapidly developing nanophotonics needs microresonators for different spectral ranges, formed by chip-compatible technologies. In addition, the tunable ones are in greatest demand. Here, we present epitaxial site--controlled III--nitride cup--cavities which can operate from ultraviolet to near--infrared, supporting quasi whispering gallery modes up to room temperature. In these cavities, the refractive index variation near an absorption edge causes the remarkable effect of mode switching, which is accompanied by the change of spatial intensity distribution, concentration of light efficiently into a subwavelength volume, and emission of terahertz photons. At a distance from the edge, the mode-related narrow emission lines have stable energies and widths at different temperatures. Moreover, their energies are identical in the large 'ripened' monocrystal cavities. Our results shed light on the mode behavior in the semiconductor cavities and open the way for single--growth--run manufacturing the devices comprising an active region and a cavity with tunable mode frequencies.