Selective excitation of Fabry-Perot or whispering-gallery mode-type lasing in GaN microrods

Lasing from long semiconductor nanorods is dictated by Fabry-Perot (FP) resonances whereas that from large-diameter microrods is determined by whispering gallery modes (WGMs). Lengths and diameters intermediate between the two systems represent an important size regime for photonics and electronics, but have not been studied in detail. Here, we report on the detection of FP and WGM lasing emissions from a single GaN microrod, and demonstrate the ability to switch between the two lasing mechanisms by translating the excitation beam along the microrod. The competition between FP and WGM-type lasing was studied by finite-difference time-domain simulation and statistical analysis by measuring microrods of various diameters. Finally, control over the relative lasing intensities originating from either FPs or WGMs was demonstrated by tuning the polarization of the emission.