Ultracompact Position-Controlled InP Nanopillar LEDs on Silicon with Bright Electroluminescence at Telecommunication Wavelengths

Abstract

Highly compact III−V compound semiconductor active nanophotonic devices integrated with silicon are important for future low power optical interconnects. One approach toward realizing heterogeneous integration and miniaturization of photonic devices is through nanowires/nanopillars grown directly on silicon substrates. However, to realize their full potential, the integration of nanowires/nanopillars with silicon-based electronics must be made scalable via precise control of nanopillar site and dimensions. Here we demonstrate the first electrical-pumped InGaAs/InP multiquantum-well (MQW) light emitting diodes (LED) using nanopillar array directly grown on a Si substrate with site control, with current conduction directly through the silicon. The growth is via catalyst-free, lowtemperature metal organic chemical vapor deposition, which is CMOS compatible. We report excellent optical properties including long minority carrier lifetimes and room-temperature lasing under optical pumping. InGaAs/InP quantum wells are incorporated in the nanopillars in a core−shell growth mode, to obtain silicon transparent emission of ∼1510 nm with high internal quantum efficiency (∼30%). Despite its small footprint, a high output power (4 μW) was measured, and the device could be electrically biased to produce optical gain. CMOS-compatible sitecontrolled growth and electrically driven long-wavelength emission make the InP nano-LED an ideal component in advanced photonic integrated circuits.

Coaxial GaAs/(In,Ga)As Dot-in-a-Well Nanowire Heterostructures for Electrically Driven Infrared Light Generation on Si in the Telecommunication O Band

“…33 LEDs operating in the telecommunication S band (1.46 -1.53 µm) have been demonstrated for InP based nanopillars on Si with radial (In,Ga)As shell QW. 34 Nanoneedle/nanopillar structures resemble NWs, but they typically exhibit base diameters in the micrometer range and are characterized by a tapered geometry, which has been demonstrated to sustain helicoidal guided photonic modes. 35 The DWELL NW heterostructure introduced here is grown around a GaAs NW core with diameter of about 100 nm and presents a smaller footprint on the substrate.…”

An Efficient Forward-Biased Si CMOS LED With High Optical Power Density and Nonlinear Optical-Power-Current Characteristic

“…And also, when the Si-LED works at high current, the Si-LED exhibits nonlinearity in growth of output optical power with injection current increasing. All these imply that this is a new-type Si-LED, which may act as highly efficient on-chip light source for the OEIC [1], [2].…”

“…With the data rate increase of integrated circuits, optical interconnections are expected to be an attractive alternative solution for overcoming the limitations encountered by electrical interconnections in the inter-chip communication, such as high crosstalk, high latencies and attenuation, etc. [1], [2]. Inevitably, much attention has been paid to the core devices employed in optical interconnections, for instance light-emitting devices, especially the silicon-based light-emitting devices (Si-LEDs).…”

Flexible InP–ZnO nanowire heterojunction light emitting diodes

“…Various types of optoelectronic devices such as LEDs, 19 solar cells, 20 lasers, 21 transistors 22 and photodetectors 23 have been demonstrated based on InP NWs due to their direct bandgap, high carrier mobility and low surface recombination rate. 24 In particular, InP NW LEDs have been reported based on axial homojunction 19,25,26 and both axial and radial quantum well devices 15,[27][28][29][30][31] grown by bottomup techniques. In comparison, radial structures have an advantage over axial structures due to a larger recombination region owing to a higher surface area-to-volume ratio of NWs.…”