Semiconductor whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microresonators are promising candidates for creating compact, energy-efficient light sources (microlasers) for various applications owing to their small footprints, high Q factors, planar geometry, in-plane light emission, and high sensitivity to the environment. In this review we present the most recent advances in III–V microdisk/microring lasers. We briefly describe basic physics behind photonic WGM resonators and discuss different designs of III–V microdisk/microring lasers. We focus on the technological key points of the different approaches to realize efficient optical and carrier confinement in the laser cavity. Advantages and disadvantages of various types of the laser active region, i.e. quantum well (QW) and quantum dots, are discussed. We also report on successful fabrication of microlasers with gain medium of mixed dimensionality, so called QW-dots, which is promising for low-threshold, temperature insensitive and high output power operation. We summarized and systematically compare the characteristics of electrically driven microlasers. We address one major shortcoming for the circular WGM lasers, which is that the lasing emission is non-directional and non-homogeneous along the cavity rim. High quality factor of the resonator modes and circular symmetry lead to difficulties in obtaining the directional light output and in obtaining significant levels of the output optical power. We compared various techniques for realizing unidirectional emission or coupling to a waveguide. We also discuss high-speed direct modulation, which is another crucial characteristic for the microlasers. We also address energy consumption characteristics of the WGM microlasers under direct modulation and possibilities of energy-to-data ratio minimization. Finally, we summarize the prospects for the WGM lasers and their role in future applications in communications and sensing.

半导体回音壁模式 (WGM) 微谐振器由于其占地面积小、Q因素、平面几何、面内光发射和对环境的高敏感性。在这篇综述中，我们介绍了 III-V 族微盘/微环激光器的最新进展。我们简要描述了光子 WGM 谐振器背后的基本物理学，并讨论了 III-V 族微盘/微环激光器的不同设计。我们关注在激光腔中实现高效光学和载流子约束的不同方法的技术关键点。讨论了各种类型的激光有源区，即量子阱（QW）和量子点的优缺点。我们还报告了成功制造具有混合维数增益介质的微型激光器，即所谓的 QW 点，它有望用于低阈值、温度不敏感和高输出功率操作。我们总结并系统地比较了电驱动微型激光器的特性。我们解决了圆形 WGM 激光器的一个主要缺点，即激光发射沿腔边缘是非定向和非均匀的。谐振腔模式的高品质因数和圆对称性导致难以获得定向光输出和获得显着水平的输出光功率。我们比较了实现单向发射或耦合到波导的各种技术。我们还讨论了高速直接调制，这是微激光器的另一个关键特性。我们还解决了 WGM 微型激光器在直接调制下的能耗特性和能量数据比最小化的可能性。最后，