Locally Strained Ge/SOI Structures with an Improved Heat Sink as an Active Medium for Silicon Optoelectronics

Abstract

The results on the formation of locally strained Ge microstructures on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates and investigation of their optical properties are presented. Suspended Ge structures are formed by optical lithography and plasmachemical and selective chemical etching using the “stress concentration” approach. To provide a heat sink from Ge microstructures, their formation scheme is modified so as to provide the mechanical contact of a part of the suspended microstructure with lower-lying layers. To implement this scheme, SOI substrates with a thin upper Si layer 100 nm in thickness are used. It is shown using the measurements of Raman spectra depending on the pumping power that local heating in such structures decreases. Measurements of the microphotoluminescence spectra show a considerable increase in the signal intensity from strained regions of Ge microstructures as well as the possibility of increasing the maximal optical pumping power (not leading to irreversible changes) for microstructures, in which the mechanical contact of the strained part with lower-lying layers is provided, when compared with suspended structures.