980 nm electrically pumped continuous lasing of QW lasers grown on silicon.

Abstract

Investigation of high-performance lasers monolithically grown on silicon (Si) could promote the development of silicon photonics in regimes other than the 1.3 -1.5 µm band. 980 nm laser, a widely used pumping source for erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) in the optical fiber communication system, can be used as a demonstration for shorter wavelength lasers. Here, we report continuous wave (CW) lasing of 980 nm electrically pumped quantum well (QW) lasers directly grown on Si by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Utilizing the strain compensated InGaAs/GaAs/GaAsP QW structure as the active medium, the lowest threshold current obtained from the lasers on Si was 40 mA, and the highest total output power was near 100 mW. A statistical comparison of lasers grown on native GaAs and Si substrates was conducted and it reveals a somewhat higher threshold for devices on Si. Internal parameters, including modal gain and optical loss are extracted from experimental results and the variation on different substrates could provide a direction to further laser optimization through further improvement of the GaAs/Si templates and QW design. These results demonstrate a promising step towards optoelectronic integration of QW lasers on Si.