Phosphorus-free 1.5 µm InAs quantum-dot microdisk lasers on metamorphic InGaAs/SOI platform.

Abstract

III-V semiconductor lasers epitaxially grown on silicon, especially on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform, have been considered one of the most promising approaches to realize an integrated light source for silicon photonics. Although notable achievements have been reported on InP-based 1.5 µm III-V semiconductor lasers directly grown on silicon substrates, phosphorus-free 1.5 µm InAs quantum dot (QD) lasers on both silicon and SOI platforms are still uncharted territory. In this work, we demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, the first phosphorus-free InAs QD microdisk laser epitaxially grown on SOI substrate emitting at the telecommunications S-band by growing metamorphic InAs/InGaAs QDs on (111)-faceted SOI hollow structures. The lasing threshold power for a seven-layer InAs QD microdisk laser with a diameter of 4 µm is measured as 234 μW at 200 K. For comparison, identical microdisk lasers grown on GaAs substrate are also characterized. The results obtained pave the way for an on-chip 1.5 µm light source for long-haul telecommunications.