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III-V semiconductor nanowire lasers on silicon

Abstract

Chip-scale integrated light sources are a crucial component in a broad range of photonics applications. III-V semiconductor nanowire emitters have gained attention as a fascinating approach due to their superior material properties, extremely compact size, and capability to grow directly on lattice-mismatched substrates including silicon. However, their practical applications are still in the early stages due to the difficulties in achieving high-performance nanowire emitters and integrating nanowire emitters with photonic platforms. In this dissertation, we demonstrate III-V nanowire-based lasers monolithically integrated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platforms, which can be potentially employed for chip-scale optical communications and photonic integrated circuits. For this, selective-area epitaxy of InGaAs nanowires on 3D structured SOI platforms is developed by catalyst-free metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. Nanowires are precisely positioned on 3D structures, including waveguides and gratings, with nearly 100 % nanowire growth yield and wide bandgap tuning ranges. Next, nanowire array-based bottom-up photonic crystal cavities are demonstrated on SOI substrates. InGaAs/InGaP core/shell nanowire arrays form 1D and 2D photonic crystal cavities on SOI layers, and single-mode room-temperature lasing from these bottom-up cavities is achieved by optically pumping the nanowire arrays. We also show that the nanowire array lasers are effectively coupled with SOI waveguides, which is achieved by integrating bottom-up nanowires on pre-patterned SOI platforms. The lasing wavelengths of nanowire array lasers are in the ranges of 1,100–1,440 nm, which covers telecommunication wavelengths, all operating at room temperature. It is also shown that arrays of proposed lasers with individually tunable wavelengths can be integrated on a single chip by lithographically tuning the cavity geometries. In summary, the III-V nanowire lasers on silicon demonstrated in this dissertation represent a new platform for ultracompact and energy-efficient light sources for silicon photonics and unambiguously point the way toward practical and functional nanowire lasers.

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