Optical gain from vertical Ge-on-Si resonant-cavity light emitting diodes with dual active regions

Abstract

Vertical resonant-cavity light emitting diodes with dual active regions consisting of highly n-doped Ge/GeSi multiple quantum wells (MQWs) and a Ge epilayer are proposed to improve the light emitting efficiency. The MQWs are designed to optically pump the underlying Ge epilayer under electric injection. Abundant excess carriers can be optically pumped into the Γ valley of the Ge epilayer apart from electric pumping. With the combination of a vertical cavity, the efficiency of the optical-pumping process was effectively improved due to the elongation of the optical length in the cavity. With the unique feature, optical gain from the Ge epilayer is observed between 1625 and 1700 nm at injection current densities of >1.528 kA/cm2. The demonstration of optical gain from the Ge epilayer indicates that this strategy can be generally useful for Si-based light sources with indirect band materials.