Continuous-wave operation of extremely low-threshold GaAs/AlGaAs broad-area injection lasers on (100) Si substrates at room temperature

Monolithic III-V on Silicon Plasmonic Nanolaser Structure for Optical Interconnects

Monolithic integration of III-V semiconductor lasers with Si circuits can reduce cost and enhance performance for optical interconnects dramatically. We propose and investigate plasmonic III-V nanolasers as monolithically integrated light source on Si chips due to many advantages. First, these III-V plasmonic light sources can be directly grown on Si substrates free of crystallographic defects due to the submicron cavity footprint (250 nm × 250 nm) being smaller than the average defect free region size of the heteroepitaxial III-V material on Si. Secondly, the small lateral and vertical dimensions facilitate process co-integration with Si complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) in the front end of the line. Thirdly, combining with monolithically integrated CMOS circuits with low device capacitance and parasitic capacitance, the nano-cavity optoelectronic devices consume orders of magnitude less power than the conventional lasers and reduce the energy consumption. Fourthly, the modulation bandwidth of the plasmonic light-sources is enhanced to significantly higher than conventional lasers due to enhanced photon state density and transition rate. In addition, we show that these device performance are very robust after taking into account the surface recombination and variations in device fabrication processes.

Monolithic electrically injected nanowire array edge-emitting laser on (001) silicon

A silicon-based laser, preferably electrically pumped, has long been a scientific and engineering goal. We demonstrate here, for the first time, an edge-emitting InGaN/GaN disk-in-nanowire array electrically pumped laser emitting in the green (λ = 533 nm) on (001) silicon substrate. The devices display excellent dc and dynamic characteristics with values of threshold current density, differential gain, T0 and small signal modulation bandwidth equal to 1.76 kA/cm(2), 3 × 10(-17) cm(2), 232 K, and 5.8 GHz respectively under continuous wave operation. Preliminary reliability measurements indicate a lifetime of 7000 h. The emission wavelength can be tuned by varying the alloy composition in the quantum disks. The monolithic nanowire laser on (001)Si can therefore address wide-ranging applications such as solid state lighting, displays, plastic fiber communication, medical diagnostics, and silicon photonics.