Abstract
Semiconductor III–V photonic crystal (PC) laser is regarded as a promising ultra-compact light source with unique advantages of ultralow energy consumption and small footprint for the next generation of Si-based on-chip optical interconnects. However, the significant material dissimilarities between III-V materials and Si are the fundamental roadblock for conventional monolithic III-V-on-silicon integration technology. Here, we demonstrate ultrasmall III-V PC membrane lasers monolithically grown on CMOS-compatible on-axis Si (001) substrates by using III-V quantum dots. The optically pumped InAs/GaAs quantum-dot PC lasers exhibit single-mode operation with an ultra-low threshold of ~0.6 μW and a large spontaneous emission coupling efficiency up to 18% under continuous-wave condition at room temperature. This work establishes a new route to form the basis of future monolithic light sources for high-density optical interconnects in future large-scale silicon electronic and photonic integrated circuits.
Highlights
Semiconductor III–V photonic crystal (PC) laser is regarded as a promising ultra-compact light source with unique advantages of ultralow energy consumption and small footprint for the generation of Si-based on-chip optical interconnects
Epitaxial growth and optical characterisation of quantum dots (QDs) PC lasers. 3D finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) methods were used to optimise the structural parameters in order to obtain a high-Q resonance within the QD ground state gain spectrum (Supplementary Fig. 1)
The InAs/GaAs QD density is estimated to be ∼4 × 1010 cm−2 with a typical size of 25 nm in diameter and 8 nm in height, determined by the atomic force microscope (AFM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) images shown in Fig. 1e and Fig. 1c, respectively
Summary
Semiconductor III–V photonic crystal (PC) laser is regarded as a promising ultra-compact light source with unique advantages of ultralow energy consumption and small footprint for the generation of Si-based on-chip optical interconnects. Even though high-performance Fabry-Perot and distributed feedback lasers integrated on Si are extensively studied[9,10], seeking a method to decrease the volume of the laser cavity and active region, and reduce the operating energy is another task to realise more energy-efficient Si-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs). In this regard, nanoscale PC cavity with high-quality-factor (Q-factor), ultrasmall mode volume (Vmode) and large Purcell factor (proportional to Q/Vmode) is one of the most promising architectures for integrated nanoscale devices, with the advantage of ultralow energy consumption as a result of enhanced light-matter interaction[11,12]. QD active region on the high crystal quality buffer layer is the key to achieve PC lasers monolithically grown on a Si substrate
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