We show that the recombination energy of the direct band gap photoluminescence (PL) of germanium can be controlled by an external mechanical stress. The stress is provided by an apparatus commonly used for bulge or blister test. An energy redshift up to 60 meV is demonstrated for the room temperature PL of a thin germanium membrane (125 nm wavelength shift from 1535 to 1660 nm). This PL shift is correlated with the in-plane tensile strain generated in the film. A biaxial tensile strain larger than 0.6% is achieved by this method. This mechanical strain allows to approach the direct band gap condition for germanium which is of tremendous importance to achieve lasing with this material.

We have investigated the optical properties of tensile-strained germanium photonic wires. The photonic wires patterned by electron beam lithography (50 μm long, 1 μm wide and 500 nm thick) are obtained by growing a n-doped germanium film on a GaAs substrate. Tensile strain is transferred in the germanium layer using a Si 3 N 4 stressor. Tensile strain around 0.4% achieved by the technique corresponds to an optical recombination of tensile-strained germanium involving light hole band around 1690 nm at room temperature. We show that the waveguided emission associated with a single tensile-strained germanium wire increases superlinearly as a function of the illuminated length. A 20% decrease of the spectral broadening is observed as the pump intensity is increased. All these features are signatures of optical gain. A 80 cm −1 modal optical gain is derived from the variable strip length method. This value is accounted for by the calculated gain material value using a 30 band k • p formalism. These germanium wires represent potential building blocks for integration of nanoscale optical sources on silicon.

We show that a strong tensile strain can be applied to germanium microdisks using silicon nitride stressors. The transferred strain allows one to control the direct band gap emission that is shifted from 1550 nm up to 2000 nm, corresponding to a biaxial tensile strain around 1%. Both Fabry-Perot and whispering gallery modes are evidenced by room temperature photoluminescence measurements. Quality factors up to 1350 and limited by free carrier absorption of the doped layer are observed for the whispering gallery modes. We discuss the strain profile in the microdisks as a function of the disk geometry. These tensile-strained microdisks are promising candidates to achieve Ge laser emission in compact microresonators. V

We have analyzed the strain distribution and the photoluminescence in Ge microstructures fabricated by means of a Si-CMOS compatible method. The tensile strain in the Ge microstructures is obtained by using a SiN stressor layer. Different shapes of microstructure, allowing the Ge layers to freely expand into one, two, or three dimensions, resulted in different strain distribution profiles. Maximal equivalent biaxial tensile strain values up to ~0.8% have been measured. Room temperature photoluminescence emission has been observed and attributed to direct-band gap recombination spectrally shifted by tensile strai