Abstract
The transition from a photonic band-edge laser to a random laser in two-dimensional active photonic crystals is described. The lasing modes in the active photonic crystals shift from the edge of the photonic bandgap to the bulk of the gap when a certain amount of position and size disorder is introduced. The shift of lasing modes is determined with various gain profiles. The results show that the modulation of lasing modes is significant when the lasing transition wavelength overlaps the photonic bandgap. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.