Room temperature InP/InGaAs nano-ridge lasers grown on silicon emitting at telecom-bands

Journal article

Semiconductor nano-lasers grown on silicon and emitting at the telecom bands are advantageous ultra-compact coherent light sources for potential Si-based photonic integrated circuit applications. However, realizing room-temperature lasing inside nano-cavities at telecom bands is challenging and has only been demonstrated up to the E band. Here, we report on InP/InGaAs nano-ridge lasers with emission wavelengths ranging from the O, E, and S bands to the C band operating at room temperature with ultra-low lasing thresholds. Using a cycled growth procedure, ridge InGaAs quantum wells inside InP nano-ridges grown on patterned (001) Si substrates are designed as active gain materials. Room-temperature lasing at the telecom bands is achieved by transferring the InP/InGaAs nano-ridges onto a SiO2∕Si substrate for optical excitation. We also show that the operation wavelength of InP/InGaAs nano-lasers can be adjusted by altering the excitation power density and the length of the nano-ridges formed in a single growth run. These results indicate the excellent optical properties of the InP/InGaAs nano-ridges grown on (001) Si substrates and pave the way towards telecom InP/InGaAs nano-laser arrays on CMOS standard Si or silicon-on-insulator substrates.

Authors: Han, Y; Ng, WK; Ma, C; Li, Q; Zhu, S

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Optical Society of America
• Journal: Optica
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 8
• Pages: 918-923
• Publication date: 2018-07-26
• Acceptance date: 2018-07-10
• DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.5.000918
• EISSN: 0740-3224
• Subjects: Laser resonators; Microcavity devices; Quantum-well, -wire and -dot devices.