Abstract
With this review paper we provide an overview of the main degradation mechanisms that limit the long-term reliability of IR semiconductor lasers for silicon photonics applications. The discussion is focused on two types of laser diodes: heterogeneous III–V lasers bonded onto silicon-on-insulator wafers, and InAs quantum-dot lasers epitaxially grown on silicon. A comprehensive analysis of the reliability-oriented literature published to date reveals that state-of-the-art heterogeneous laser sources share with conventional laser diodes their major epitaxy-related degradation processes, such as the generation of non-radiative recombination centers or dopant diffusion, while eliminating cleaved facets and exposed mirrors. The lifetime of InAs quantum dot lasers grown on silicon, whose development represents a fundamental step toward a fully epitaxial integration of future photonic integrated circuits, is strongly limited by the density of extended defects, mainly misfit dislocations, protruding into the active layer of the devices. The concentration of such defects, along with inefficient carrier injection and excessive carrier overflow rates, promote recombination-enhanced degradation mechanisms that reduce the long-term reliability of these sources. The impact of these misfits can be largely eliminated with the inclusion of blocking layers.
Highlights
Accepted: 29 October 2021Silicon represents the most widely employed semiconductor material for the realizations of electronic devices and integrated circuits
GaAs, InSb, CdTe, GaP, InAs, and their alloys. While this approach represents the optimal path for the manufacturing of stand-alone components to be included in discrete-based systems, it severely limits the direct inclusion of optical emitters into Si-based electronic
Our analysis focuses on heterogeneous III–V MQW lasers on SOI, repIn particular, our analysis focuses on heterogeneous III–V MQW lasers on SOI, representing resenting current state-of-the-art integrated lasers, and on quantum-dot laser epitaxially current state-of-the-art integrated lasers, and on quantum-dot laser epitaxially grown on grown silicon, which maythe become the preferential lightfor source forphotonic future photonic desilicon,onwhich may become preferential light source future devices and vices and systems operating in the
Summary
Matteo Buffolo 1, * , Carlo De Santi 1 , Justin Norman 2 , Chen Shang 2 , John Edward Bowers 2 , Gaudenzio Meneghesso 1 , Enrico Zanoni 1 and Matteo Meneghini 1.
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