Quantum dot lasers and integrated optoelectronics on silicon platform

Chip-scale integration of optoelectronic devices such as lasers, waveguides, and modulators on silicon is prevailing as a promising approach to realize future ultrahigh speed optical interconnects. We review recent progress of the direct epitaxy and fabrication of quantum dot （QD） lasers and integrated guided-wave devices on silicon. This approach involves the development of molecular beam epitaxial growth of self- organized QD lasers directly on silicon substrates and their monolithic integration with amorphous silicon waveguides and quantum well electroabsorption modulators. Additionally, we report a preliminary study of long-wavelength （〉 1.3 μm） QD lasers grown on silicon and integrated crystalline silicon waveguides using membrane transfer technology.     

硅基III-V族量子点激光器的发展现状和前景

本文简要综述了硅基III-V族量子点激光器的研究进展. 在介绍了量子点激光器的优势和发展后, 重点介绍了近年来硅基、锗基III-V族量子点材料生长上的突破性进展及所带来的器件性能的大幅提高, 如实现了锗基和硅基1.3 μm InAs/GaAs量子点激光器的室温激射, 锗基量子点激光器的阈值电流低至55.2 A/cm²并可达60 ℃以上的连续激射, 通过锗硅虚拟衬底, 在硅基上实现了30 ℃下以16.6 mW的输出功率达到4600 h的激光寿命, 这些突破性的进展为硅基光电子集成打开了新的大门.     

Hybrid silicon modulators Invited Paper

A number of active elements have been demonstrated using the hybrid silicon evanescent platform, includ- ing lasers, amplifiers, and detectors. In this letter, two types of hybrid silicon modulators, fulfilling the building blocks in optical communication on this platform, are presented. A hybrid silicon electroabsorp-tion modulator, suitable for high speed interconnects, with 10-dB extinction ratio at -5 V and 16-GHz modulation bandwidth is demonstrated. In addition, a hybrid silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator utilizing carrier depletion in multiple quantum wells is proved with 2 V.mm voltage-length product, 150-nm optical bandwidth, and a large signal modulation up to 10 Gb/s.     

Three terminals optoelectronics devices integrated into a silicon on silicon waveguide

In this paper we describe two different kind of optoelectronic devices both based on a three terminals active device and exploit the plasma dispersion effect to achieve the desired working. The first device exploits this effect in order to obtain an optical modulation. The second device is an optoelectronic router based on the mode-mixing principle together with the injection-induced optical phase shift. Both devices are integrated into a Silicon on Silicon optical channel waveguide which can be realized using a standard bipolar process. The possibility of using standard, well-known technology presents several advantages with respect to III–V Optoelectronics. The active three terminal device used is a Bipolar Mode Field Effect Transistor (BMFET). Numerical simulation results are presented on both devices.     

Limits on light emission from silicon Invited Paper

Although silicon is an indirect semiconductor, light emission from silicon is governed by the same gener-alized Planck's radiation law as the emission from direct semiconductors. The emission intensity is given by the absorptance of the volume in which there is a difference of the quasi Fermi energies. A difference of the Fermi energies may rcsult from the absorption of external light (photoluminescence) or from the in-jection of electrons and holes via selective contacts (electroluminescence). The quantum efficiency may be larger than 0.5 for carrier densities below 1015 cm-3. At larger densities, non-radiative recombination, in particular Auger recombination dominates. At all carrier densities, the relation between emission intensity and difference of the quasi Fermi energies is maintained. Since this difference is equal to the voltage of a properly designed solar cell, luminescence is the key indicator of material quality for solar cells.     

Silicon nanocrystals to enable silicon photonics Invited Paper

Low dimensional silicon, where quantum size effects play significant roles, enables silicon with new photonic functionalities. In this short review, we discuss the way that silicon nanocrystals are produced, their optoelectronic properties and a few device applications. We demonstrate that low dimensional silicon is an optimum material for developing silicon photonics.     

Technology challenges for monolithically integrated waveguide demultiplexers Invited Paper

A short overview of integrated waveguide demultiplexers for different applications in future highly inte- grated optical communication systems is presented. Some fabricated devices based on amorphous silicon nanowire technology are described.     

Double-notch-shaped microdisk resonator devices with gapless coupling on a silicon chip Invited Paper

We propose novel double-notch-shaped microdisk resonator-based devices with gapless waveguide-to- microdisk and inter-cavity coupling via the two notches of the microdisk. Both finite-difference time- domain simulations and experimental demonstrations reveal the high-quality-factor multimode resonances in such microdisks. Using such double-notch microdisk resonators, we experimentally demonstrate the many-element linearly cascaded-microdisk resonator devices with up to 50 elements on a silicon chip.     

Nonlinear properties of quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifiers at 1.3 μm Invited Paper

The dynamics of nonlinear processes in quantum dot (QD) semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) are investigated. Using small-signal measurements, the suitabilities of cross-gain and cross-phase modulation as well as four wave mixing (FWM) for wavelength conversion are examined. The cross-gain modulation is found to be suitable for wavelength conversion up to a frequency of 40 GHz.     

Quantum dot lasers: recent progress in theoretical understanding and demonstration of high-output-power operation

The field of semiconductor quantum dot (QD) diode lasers is rapidly developing. Important milestones, such as low-threshold operation and room-temperature cw operation, have been achieved in the last years. We review the progress in theoretical understanding and present recent results on high-power QD laser operation (>3 W@1100 nm). Received: 24 June 1999 / Revised version: 23 August 1999 / Published online: 20 October 1999     

Facet-embedded thin-film III-V edge-emitting lasers integrated with SU-8 waveguides on silicon

A thin-film InGaAs/GaAs edge-emitting single-quantum-well laser has been integrated with a tapered multimode SU-8 waveguide onto an Si substrate. The SU-8 waveguide is passively aligned to the laser using mask-based photolithography, mimicking electrical interconnection in Si complementary metal-oxide semiconductor, and overlaps one facet of the thin-film laser for coupling power from the laser to the waveguide. Injected threshold current densities of 260A/cm(2) are measured with the reduced reflectivity of the embedded laser facet while improving single mode coupling efficiency, which is theoretically simulated to be 77%.     

Quantum well and quantum dot lasers: From strained-layer and self-organized epitaxy to high-performance devices

Strained heterostructures are now widely used to realize high-performance lasers. Highly mismatched epitaxy also produces defect-free quantum dots via an island growth mode. The characteristics of high-speed strained quantum well and quantum dot lasers are described. It is seen that substantial improvements in small-signal modulation bandwidth are obtained in both 1 m (48 GHz) and 1.55 m (26 GHz) by tunneling electrons directly into the lasing sub-band. In quantum dots the small-signal modulation bandwidth is limited by electron-hole scattering to 7 GHz at room temperature and 23 GHz at 80 K. The properties of these devices are described.     

Huge capacity spacial division multiplexing transmission and integrated optical switching technologies(Invited Paper)

We review the research and development of beyond Pb/s capacity space-division-multiplexed transmission technology using multi-core optical fibers for satisfying the ever-increasing traffic demand. Moreover, we present an optical packet and circuit integrated network technology to improve switching capacity and flexibility in network nodes for the rapid traffic fluctuation and the data service diversification.     

Quantum dot resonant tunneling FET on graphene

At this paper a field effect transistor based on graphene nanoribbon (GNR) is modeled. Like in most GNR-FETs the GNR is chosen to be semiconductor with a gap, through which the current passes at on state of the device. The regions at the two ends of GNR are highly n-type doped and play the role of metallic reservoirs so called source and drain contacts. Two dielectric layers are placed on top and bottom of the GNR and a metallic gate is located on its top above the channel region. At this paper it is assumed that the gate length is less than the channel length so that the two ends of the channel region are un-gated. As a result of this geometry, the two un-gated regions of channel act as quantum barriers between channel and the contacts. By applying gate voltage, discrete energy levels are generated in channel and resonant tunneling transport occurs via these levels. By solving the NEGF and 3D Poisson equations self consistently, we have obtained electron density, potential profile and current. The current variations with the gate voltage give rise to negative transconductance.     

Progress on waveguide-based holographic video(Invited Paper)

This paper presents progress on the characterization of guided-wave light modulators for use in a low-cost holographic video monitor based on the MIT scanned-aperture architecture. A custom-built characterization apparatus was used to study device bandwidth, RGB operation, and linearity in an effort to identify optimal parameters for high bandwidth, GPU-driven, full-color holographic display.     

Fabrication and characterization of porous silicon layers for applications in optoelectronics

In the present paper, several samples of porous silicon monolayers and multilayers were prepared at different anodization conditions with fixed HF concentration. The room temperature photoluminescence wavelength observed to be increased with increased etching time and current density respectively. By Raman measurement it has been observed that as the size of silicon crystallites decreased with increased etching time, the silicon optical phonon line shifted somewhat to lower frequency from 520.5 cm⁻¹ and became broader asymmetrically. The surface roughness and pyramid like hillocks surface was confirmed by AFM measurement. In SEM images, the porous silicon layers were clearly observed by white and black strips. It was also observed that the reflectivity increased as the number of porous silicon layers was increased.     

Photonic crystal waveguides and their applicationsInvited Paper

Two-dimensional (2D) slab photonic crystal waveguides (PCWGs) on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer were designed and fabricated. Full photonic band gap, band gap guided mode, and index guided mode were observed by measuring the transmission spectra. Mini-stop-bands in the PCWG were simulated with different structure parameters. Coupling characteristics of PCWG were investigated theoretically considering the imperfections during the fabrication process. It was found that suppressing power reservation effect can realize both short coupling length and high coupling efficiency.     

A review of progress on nano-aperture VCSELInvited Paper

This paper reviews the progress on nano-aperture vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). The design, fabrication, and polarization control of nano-aperture VCSELs are reviewed. With the nanoaperture evolving from conventional circular and square aperture to unique C-shaped, H-shaped, I-shaped, and bowtie-shaped aperture, both the near-field intensity and near-field beam confinement from nanoaperture VCSELs are significantly improved. As a high-intensity compact light source with sub-100-nm spot size, nano-aperture VCSELs are promising to realize many new near-field optical systems and applications.     

Holographic display based on compressive sensing (Invited Paper)

We propose a method to improve the quality of the reconstructed images based on compressive sensing principles. The pseudo-inverse matrix and the total variation minimization algorithms are combined to reduce the sampling number of the computer generated hologram. Numerical simulations are performed and the results indicate that the peak signal to noise ratio is increased and the sampling ratio is decreased at the same time for holographic display.     

Electron radiation effects on InAs/GaAs quantum dot lasers

The InAs/GaAs quantum dot laser diodes and corresponding quantum dot samples are irradiated by 1 MeV electron. The laser performance and quantum dot photoluminescence intensity at room temperature are enhanced over a fluence range of 4 × 10¹³ cm^?2. The radiation-induced defects increase the efficiency of carrier transfer to the quantum dots, which results in the improvement of photoluminescence performance under low level displacement damage. The contact resistant of quantum dot lasers decreases because the ohmic contact is also improved by electron irradiation.