Tensile-strain and doping enhanced direct bandgap optical transition of n+ doped Ge/GeSi quantum wells

Abstract

Band structures of tensile strained and n+ doped Ge/GeSi quantum wells (QWs) are calculated by multiple-band k·p method. The energy dispersion curves of the Γ and L conduction subbands are obtained. The effects of tensile strain and n+ doping in Ge on direct bandgap optical gain and spontaneous radiative recombination rate spectra are investigated including the electron leakage from Γ to L conduction subbands. Our results show that the optical gain and spontaneous radiative recombination rate can be significantly increased with the tensile strain, n-type doping concentration, and injection carrier density in the Ge QW. The free carrier absorption is calculated and cannot be ignored because of the heavily doped Ge. The pure TM mode polarized net optical gain up to 1153 cm−1 can be achieved for the Ge/Ge0.986Si0.014 QW with tensile strain of 1.61% and n-type doping concentration of 30 × 1018 cm−3.