Optical confinement in CdTe-based photonic dots

We demonstrate three-dimensional optical confinement in CdTe-based microcavities. While the vertical confinement is determined by epitaxially grown CdMnTe/CdMgTe Bragg mirrors, the lateral confinement is achieved by defining pillar structures with electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching. The optical confinement is shown by a size-dependent energy splitting between the fundamental and higher photonic modes.