On-chip Light Sources Research Articles

Bottom Electrode Modification Enables Efficient and Bright Silicon-Based Top-Emission Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes.

The integration of perovskites with mature silicon platform has emerged as a promising approach in the development of efficient on-chip light sources and high-brightness displays. However, the performance of Si-based green perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) still falls significantly short compared to their red and near-infrared counterparts. In this study, it is revealed that the high work function Au, widely employed in Si-based top-emission PeLEDs as the reflective bottom electrode, exhibits considerably lower reflectivity in the green spectrum than in the longer wavelengths. Consequently, Ag electrode is introduced to replace Au to enhance the green light reflectivity, and the ultrathin MoO3 and self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are sequentially deposited for surface modification. These results indicate that the MoO3 layer removes the energy barrier at Ag/polymer hole transport layer interface, enhancing the hole injection efficiency; while the SAMs firmly anchor onto the MoO3 layer, effectively preventing interfacial defect formation. Benefited from this organic/inorganic dual-layer modification strategy, Si-based green PeLEDs with an impressive peak external quantum efficiency of 18.2% and a maximum brightness of 81931 cd m-2 are successfully fabricated, on par with those of the red and near-infrared counterparts. This achievement marks an advancement in developing high-performance Si-based PeLEDs with full-spectrum output.

InP/LiNbO3 Covalent Heterointerface Construction via an Asymmetric Plasma Activation Strategy for Hybrid Integrated Quantum Systems.

Lithium niobate (LiNbO3) is emerging as an appealing candidate for integrated optical applications with enhanced complexity, owing to its inherent abundant optoelectronic properties. To compensate for the inability of LiNbO3 to generate indistinguishable single photons, the evanescent coupling heterointerface constructed between III-V compound semiconductors (e.g., InP) and LiNbO3 through plasma activation provides a feasible solution for balancing the integration efficiency and interfacial stability while achieving sub-50 nm alignment accuracy between devices, thus offering ultracompact on-chip light sources for classical optoelectronics and quantum optics. However, a challenge remains in the formation of the InP/LiNbO3 platform due to the huge mismatch in the coefficient of thermal expansion. Here, we demonstrate the InP/LiNbO3 covalent heterointerface using an asymmetric plasma activation strategy. Different plasmas are used for the activation of InP and LiNbO3 specifically, balancing the enhancement of surface functional group density with the avoidance of defect generation effectively. More importantly, combined with surface comprehensive characterizations and interface performance, we determine that the introduction of ammonia solution enables the surface hydroxyl groups to be "effective" as LiNbO3 surface relaxation increases the chance of -OH groups' contact. Therefore, a robust covalent bond network is established across the InP/LiNbO3 interface at 80 °C with an enhanced bonding strength of 9.7 MPa. Moreover, a hybrid quantum photonic chip based on the InP/LiNbO3 platform is designed to compute the coupling efficiency and the impact of misalignment on it, demonstrating the potential of extending the platform to hybrid integrated quantum systems.

What can be integrated on the silicon photonics platform and how?

We review the integration techniques for incorporating various materials into silicon-based devices. We discuss on-chip light sources with gain materials, linear electro-optic modulators using electro-optic materials, low-power piezoelectric tuning devices with piezoelectric materials, highly absorbing materials for on-chip photodetectors, and ultra-low-loss optical waveguides. Methodologies for integrating these materials with silicon are reviewed, alongside the technical challenges and evolving trends in silicon hybrid and heterogeneously integrated devices. In addition, potential research directions are proposed. With the advancement of integration processes for thin-film materials, significant breakthroughs are anticipated, leading to the realization of optoelectronic monolithic integration featuring on-chip lasers.

Enhanced vertical second harmonic generation from layered GaSe coupled to photonic crystal circular Bragg resonators

Abstract Two-dimensional (2D) layered materials without centrosymmetry, such as GaSe, have emerged as promising novel optical materials due to large second-order nonlinear susceptibilities. However, their nonlinear responses are severely limited by the short interaction between the 2D materials and light, which should be improved by coupling them with photonic structures with strong field confinement. Here, we theoretically design photonic crystal circular Bragg gratings (CBG) based on hole gratings with a quality factor as high as Q = 8 × 103, a mode volume as small as V = 1.18 (λ/n)3, and vertical emission of light field in silicon nitride thin film platform. Experimentally, we achieved a Q value up to nearly 4 × 103, resulting in a 1,200-fold enhancement of second harmonic generation from GaSe flakes with a thickness of 50 nm coupling to the CBG structures under continuous-wave excitation. Our work endows silicon-based photonic platforms with significant second-order nonlinear effect, which is potentially applied in on-chip quantum light sources and nonlinear frequency conversion.

Voltage-controlled nonlinear optical properties in gold nanofilms via electrothermal effect

Dynamic control of the optical properties of gold nanostructures is crucial for advancing photonics technologies spanning optical signal processing, on-chip light sources and optical computing. Despite recent advances in tunable plasmons in gold nanostructures, most studies are limited to the linear or static regime, leaving the dynamic manipulation of nonlinear optical properties unexplored. This study demonstrates the voltage-controlled Kerr nonlinear optical response of gold nanofilms via the electrothermal effect. By applying relatively low voltages (~10 V), the nonlinear absorption coefficient and refractive index are reduced by 40.4% and 33.1%, respectively, due to the increased damping coefficient of gold nanofilm. Furthermore, a voltage-controlled all-fiber gold nanofilm saturable absorber is fabricated and used in mode-locked fiber lasers, enabling reversible wavelength-tuning and operation regimes switching (e.g., mode-locking—Q-switched mode-locking). These findings advance the understanding of electrically controlled nonlinear optical responses in gold nanofilms and offer a flexible approach for controlling fiber laser operations.

Two-Dimensional Electron-Hole Plasma in Colloidal Quantum Shells Enables Integrated Lasing Continuously Tunable in the Red Spectrum.

Combining integrated optical platforms with solution-processable materials offers a clear path toward miniaturized and robust light sources, including lasers. A limiting aspect for red-emitting materials remains the drop in efficiency at high excitation density due to non-radiative quenching pathways, such as Auger recombination. Next to this, lasers based on such materials remain ill characterized, leaving questions about their ultimate performance. Here, we show that colloidal quantum shells (QSs) offer a viable solution for a processable material platform to circumvent these issues. We first show that optical gain in QSs is mediated by a 2D plasma state of unbound electron-hole pairs, opposed to bound excitons, which gives rise to broad-band and sizable gain across the full red spectrum with record gain lifetimes and a low threshold. Moreover, at high excitation density, the emission efficiency of the plasma state does not quench, a feat we can attribute to an increased radiative recombination rate. Finally, QSs are integrated on a silicon nitride platform, enabling high spectral contrast, surface emitting, and TE-polarized lasers with ultranarrow beam divergence across the entire red spectrum from a small surface area. Our results indicate QS materials are an excellent materials platform to realize highly performant and compact on-chip light sources.

2.1 µm multi-quantum well laser epitaxially grown on on-axis (001) InP/SiO2/Si substrate fabricated by ion-slicing

A cost-effective method to achieve a 2-3 µm wavelength light source on silicon represents a major challenge. In this study, we have developed a novel approach that combines an epitaxial growth and the ion-slicing technique. A 2.1 µm wavelength laser on a wafer-scale heterogeneous integrated InP/SiO2/Si (InPOI) substrate fabricated by ion-slicing technique was achieved by epitaxial growth. The performance of the lasers on the InPOI are comparable with the InP, where the threshold current density (Jth) was 1.3 kA/cm2 at 283 K when operated under continuous wave (CW) mode. The high thermal conductivity of Si resulted in improved high-temperature laser performance on the InPOI. The proposed method offers a novel means of integrating an on-chip light source.

E-Band InAs Quantum Dot Micro-Disk Laser with Metamorphic InGaAs Layers Grown on GaAs/Si (001) Substrate.

The direct growth of III-V quantum dot (QD) lasers on silicon substrate has been rapidly developing over the past decade and has been recognized as a promising method for achieving on-chip light sources in photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Up to date, O- and C/L-bands InAs QD lasers on Si have been extensively investigated, but as an extended telecommunication wavelength, the E-band QD lasers directly grown on Si substrates are not available yet. Here, we demonstrate the first E-band (1365 nm) InAs QD micro-disk lasers epitaxially grown on Si (001) substrates by using a III-V/IV hybrid dual-chamber molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system. The micro-disk laser device on Si was characterized with an optical threshold power of 0.424 mW and quality factor (Q) of 1727.2 at 200 K. The results presented here indicate a path to on-chip silicon photonic telecom-transmitters.

Coherent radiation at visible wavelengths from sub-keV electron beams.

The Smith-Purcell effect allows for coherent free-electron-driven compact light sources over the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Intriguing interaction regimes, with prospects for quantum optical applications, are expected when the driving free electron enters the sub-keV range, though this has until now remained an experimental challenge. Here, we demonstrate the Smith-Purcell light emission from UV to visible using engineerable, fabricated gratings with periodicities as low as 19 nm and with electron energies as low as 300 eV. Our findings constitute a major step toward broadband, highly tunable, on-chip light sources, observation of quantum recoil effects, and tunable EUV and x ray sources from swift electrons.

Remarkable emission enhancement of CsPbBr3 quantum dots based on an Ag nanoparticle-Ag film plasmonic coupling structure.

All-inorganic halide perovskite quantum dots (QDs) have recently received much attention due to their excellent optoelectronic properties. And their emission properties still need to be improved for further applications. Here, we demonstrated a remarkable emission enhancement of the CsPbBr3 QDs based on an Ag nanoparticle-Ag film plasmonic coupling structure. Through precise control of the gap distance between Ag nanoparticle and Ag film, the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak was tuned to match the emission wavelength of the CsPbBr3 QDs. We achieved a 30-fold fluorescence intensity enhancement and a lower lasing threshold, which is 25% of that of the CsPbBr3 QDs without plasmonic coupling structure. It is attributed to that the plasmonic coupling structure exhibits an extremely strong local electric field owing to the coupling between LSPR of Ag nanoparticle and surface plasmon polariton of Ag film. This work provides an effective way to enhance the optical emission of perovskite QDs and promotes the further exploration of on-chip light source.

Low-Threshold Anti-Stokes Raman Microlaser on Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Chip.

Raman microlasers form on-chip versatile light sources by optical pumping, enabling numerical applications ranging from telecommunications to biological detection. Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) lasing has been demonstrated in optical microresonators, leveraging high Q factors and small mode volume to generate downconverted photons based on the interaction of light with the Stokes vibrational mode. Unlike redshifted SRS, stimulated anti-Stokes Raman scattering (SARS) further involves the interplay between the pump photon and the SRS photon to generate an upconverted photon, depending on a highly efficient SRS signal as an essential prerequisite. Therefore, achieving SARS in microresonators is challenging due to the low lasing efficiencies of integrated Raman lasers caused by intrinsically low Raman gain. In this work, high-Q whispering gallery microresonators were fabricated by femtosecond laser photolithography assisted chemo-mechanical etching on thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN), which is a strong Raman-gain photonic platform. The high Q factor reached 4.42 × 106, which dramatically increased the circulating light intensity within a small volume. And a strong Stokes vibrational frequency of 264 cm-1 of lithium niobate was selectively excited, leading to a highly efficient SRS lasing signal with a conversion efficiency of 40.6%. And the threshold for SRS was only 0.33 mW, which is about half the best record previously reported on a TFLN platform. The combination of high Q factors, a small cavity size of 120 μm, and the excitation of a strong Raman mode allowed the formation of SARS lasing with only a 0.46 mW pump threshold.

Single-Mode Laser in the Telecom Range by Deterministic Amplification of the Topological Interface Mode.

Photonic integrated circuits are paving the way for novel on-chip functionalities with diverse applications in communication, computing, and beyond. The integration of on-chip light sources, especially single-mode lasers, is crucial for advancing those photonic chips to their full potential. Recently, novel concepts involving topological designs introduced a variety of options for tuning device properties, such as the desired single-mode emission. Here, we introduce a novel cavity design that allows amplification of the topological interface mode by deterministic placement of gain material within a topological lattice. The proposed design is experimentally implemented by a selective epitaxy process to achieve closely spaced Si and InGaAs nanorods embedded within the same layer. This results in the first demonstration of a single-mode laser in the telecom band using the concept of amplified topological modes without introducing artificial losses.

Effect of junction temperature on 1.3 µm InAs/GaAs quantum dot lasers directly grown on silicon

Laser junction temperature (Tj) is an essential parameter that directly affects the light power and lifetime of semiconductor lasers. Here, we investigate the effect of Tj on an InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) laser grown on a Si(001) substrate. Under 1% low pulsed current (1 µs pulse width and 100 µs period), the pure temperature-induced mode shift rate is 0.084 nm/°C. By increasing the duty cycle and measuring the corresponding mode wavelength shift, the laser’s Tj under the continuous-wave (Tj-CW) mode is predicted to be from 31.1 to 81.6 °C when the injection current increases from 100 to 550 mA. Next, the average thermal resistance is 36.2 °C/W. Moreover, the non-negligible increase in Tj-CW is analyzed to significantly reduce the mean-time-to-failure of Si-based QD laser, especially for cases under high CW injection currents. These results provide an accurate reference for the thermal analysis of silicon-based QD lasers and point the way to high performance on-chip light sources by improving the laser heat accumulation.

High performance DFB laser array combiner enabled by all-dielectric metalens array

Metalens have the advantages of ultra-thin, low loss, easy integration and flexible phase control mechanism, which have attracted intensive attention in the field of on-chip photonic chips. By designing Si nanocylinder meta-atom on SiO2 substrate, the structure size is optimized to achieve the optimal light transmittance and phase change covers the range of 2π. In order to achieve the effect of coupling Distributed Feedback Laser (DFB) array into a fiber, it is necessary to accurately arrange the above optimized Si nanocylinder according to a certain phase profile to achieve the effect of off-axis focusing. Here, we designed an off-axis focusing metalens array to efficiently couple the parallel 4-channel DFB laser array into the few-mode fiber (FMF), and the total coupling efficiency reaches 56.48 %. This result provides a new idea for compact, low loss on-chip light sources.

Progress on Chip-Based Spontaneous Four-Wave Mixing Quantum Light Sources

Quantum light generated through spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) process in nonlinear materials, such as entangled photon pairs and single photons, is an important resource for various emerging quantum applications. Integrated quantum photonics has enabled the generation, manipulation, and detection of quantum states of light with steadily increasing scale and complexity levels. Importantly, the exploration of on-chip integration has accumulated substantial progresses in recent years toward the realization of low-cost, large-scale quantum photonic circuits. Here, we review the underlying mechanism and discuss state-of-the-art SFWM on-chip quantum light sources fabricated with various structures and materials on chip. Furthermore, we enumerate the most appealing applications of on-chip SFWM such as heralding single-photon source, entangled photon source, and system-level integration.

Optical Gain Spectrum and Confinement Factor of a Monolayer Semiconductor in an Ultrahigh-Quality Cavity.

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have attracted great attention as a novel class of gain materials for low-threshold, on-chip coherent light sources. Despite several experimental reports on lasing, the underlying gain mechanism of 2D materials remains elusive due to a lack of key information, including modal gain and the confinement factor. Here, we demonstrate a novel approach to directly determine the absorption coefficient of monolayer WS2 by characterizing the whispering gallery modes in a van der Waals microdisk cavity. By exploiting the cavity's high intrinsic quality factor of 2.5 × 104, the absorption coefficient spectrum and confinement factor are experimentally resolved with unprecedented accuracy. The excitonic gain reduces the WS2 absorption coefficient by 2 × 104 cm-1 at room temperature, and the experimental confinement factor is found to agree with the theoretical prediction. These results are essential for unveiling the gain mechanism in emergent, low-threshold 2D-semiconductor-based laser devices.

Low-threshold lasing from bound states in the continuum with dielectric metasurfaces

Bound states in the continuum (BICs) with extremely large quality factors (Q factors) can enhance the light–matter interaction and thus achieve low-threshold lasing. Here, we theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate the low-threshold lasing at room temperature based on BICs. A threshold of approximately 306.7 W/cm2 (peak intensity) under a 7.5 ns-pulsed optical excitation is presented in an all-dielectric metasurface system consisting of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanopillars with a dye film. Also, the multimode lasing can be excited by the higher pumping. Our results may find exciting applications in on-chip coherent light sources, filtering, and sensing.

Multichannel Quantum Emission with On-Chip Emitter-Coupled Holographic Metasurfaces.

Multichannel quantum emission is in high demand for advanced quantum photonic applications such as quantum communications, quantum computing, and quantum cryptography. However, to date, the most common way for shaping photon emission from quantum emitters (QEs) is to utilize free-standing (external) bulky optical components. Here, we develop the multichannel holography approach for flexibly designing on-chip QE-coupled metasurfaces that make use of nonradiatively QE-excited surface plasmon polaritons for generating far-field quantum emission, which propagates in designed directions carrying specific spin and orbital angular momenta (SAM and OAM, respectively). We further design, fabricate, and characterize on-chip quantum light sources of multichannel quantum emission encoded with different SAMs and OAMs. The holography-based inverse design approach developed and demonstrated on-chip quantum light sources with multiple degrees of freedoms, thereby enabling a powerful platform for quantum nanophotonics, especially relevant for advanced quantum photonic applications, e.g., high-dimensional quantum information processing.

Interfacial Cherenkov radiation from ultralow-energy electrons

Cherenkov radiation occurs only when a charged particle moves with a velocity exceeding the phase velocity of light in that matter. This radiation mechanism creates directional light emission at a wide range of frequencies and could facilitate the development of on-chip light sources except for the hard-to-satisfy requirement for high-energy particles. Creating Cherenkov radiation from low-energy electrons that has no momentum mismatch with light in free space is still a long-standing challenge. Here, we report a mechanism to overcome this challenge by exploiting a combined effect of interfacial Cherenkov radiation and umklapp scattering, namely the constructive interference of light emission from sequential particle-interface interactions with specially designed (umklapp) momentum-shifts. We find that this combined effect is able to create the interfacial Cherenkov radiation from ultralow-energy electrons, with kinetic energies down to the electron-volt scale. Due to the umklapp scattering for the excited high-momentum Bloch modes, the resulting interfacial Cherenkov radiation is uniquely featured with spatially separated apexes for its wave cone and group cone.

Ultrasmall InGa(As)P Dielectric and Plasmonic Nanolasers.

Nanolasers have great potential for both on-chip light sources and optical barcoding particles. We demonstrate ultrasmall InGaP and InGaAsP disk lasers with diameters down to 360 nm (198 nm in height) in the red spectral range. Optically pumped, room-temperature, single-mode lasing was achieved from both disk-on-pillar and isolated particles. When isolated disks were placed on gold, plasmon polariton lasing was obtained with Purcell-enhanced stimulated emission. UV lithography and plasma ashing enabled wafer-scale fabrication of nanodisks with an intended random size variation. Silica-coated nanodisk particles generated stable subnanometer spectra from within biological cells across an 80 nm bandwidth from 635 to 715 nm.