Bufferless 1.5  µm III-V lasers grown on Si-photonics 220  nm silicon-on-insulator platforms

Abstract

Efficient III-V lasers directly grown on Si remain the “holy grail” for present Si-photonics research. In particular, a bufferless III-V laser grown on the Si-photonics 220 nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform could seamlessly bridge the active III-V light sources with the passive Si-based photonic devices. Here we report on the direct growth of bufferless 1.5 µm III-V lasers on industry-standard 220 nm SOI platforms using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Taking advantage of the constituent diffusivity at elevated growth temperatures, we first devised a MOCVD growth scheme for the direct hetero-epitaxy of high-quality III-V alloys on the 220 nm SOI wafers through synergizing the conventional aspect ratio trapping (ART) and the lateral ART methods. In contrast to prevalent epitaxy inside V-grooved pockets, our method features epitaxy inside trapezoidal troughs and thus enables the flexible integration of different III-V compounds on SOIs with different Si device layer thicknesses. Then, using InP as an example, we detailed the growth process and performed extensive study of the crystalline quality of the epitaxial III-V. Finally, we designed and fabricated both pure InP and InP/InGaAs lasers, and we achieved room-temperature lasing in both the 900 nm band and the 1500 nm band under pulsed optical excitation. Direct epitaxy of these in-plane and bufferless 1.5 µm III-V lasers on the 220 nm SOI platform suggests the imminent interfacing with Si-based photonic devices and the subsequent realization of fully integrated Si-based photonic circuits.

Analytical Prediction for Quasi-TE mode in Silicon Nanowire Optical Rectangular Waveguide

“…The refractive index used for SiO2 and Si at 1550nm wavelength is calculated through Sellmeier's equation as 1.444 [9], [42] and 3.4752 [43], respectively. The height of all silicon nanowire is chosen as 220nm to meet the current standard height for SOI structures [44]. The computation of electric and magnetic fields guiding inside SNORW structure is simulated by taking minimum triangular mesh element size of 0.1nm and maximum element size of 1nm.…”

Modeling of a SiGeSn quantum well laser

“…However, thick buffers make direct evanescent coupling to the underlying Si layer challenging. While bufferless III-V lasers have been grown on silicon using a combination of V-grooved substrates and aspect ratio trapping of defects [8], these lasers have yet to be electrically pumped and experimentally coupled to Si waveguides [9]. While there also exists an interest to integrate III-V materials with CMOS for highperformance electronics applications [10], the introduction of III-V materials into front-end processes remains very problematic for currently accessible fabrication facilities.…”

Development of an Epitaxial Growth Technique Using III-V on a Si Platform for Heterogeneous Integration of Membrane Photonic Devices on Si

“…However, these "blanket" epitaxial growth techniques still require a thick buffer layer (typically >2 μm). In contrast, direct selective epitaxy using defect filtering with selective-area growth masks enable the integration of high-quality III-V layers on a Si substrate without requiring a thick buffer layer [28][29][30][31][32]. Using the defect filtering method, various lasers with optical pumping have been demonstrated.…”