Engineering the chirality of optical microcavities is a central concept of modern photonics to gain full control the polarization of the confined electromagnetic mode. Here, we demonstrate a compact source of coherent radiation based on an electrically driven, chiral semiconductor microcavity. The device is composed of an $\mathrm{Al}\mathrm{As}$/$(\mathrm{Al},\mathrm{Ga})\mathrm{As}$ microcavity containing multiple $\mathrm{Ga}\mathrm{As}$ quantum wells in the active region and a chiral photonic crystal slab etched in the upper distributed Bragg reflector. The structure promotes laser oscillation under electrical current injection in the near-infrared spectral range ($\hslash \omega \simeq 1.565\mathrm{eV}$) and degrees of circular polarization exceeding 90%. The sense of circular polarization is controlled by the handedness of the chiral photonic crystal slab and changes to the opposite one in a mirror-symmetrical structure. Our results represent an important step towards the practical implementation of compact sources of circularly polarized light.

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• Metamaterials
• Optoelectronics
• Photonics
• Polarization of light
• Nanostructures
• Quantum wells
• Semiconductor lasers
• Cavity resonators