Low-threshold optically pumped lasing in highly strained Ge nanowires

The integration of efficient, miniaturized group IV lasers into CMOS architecture holds the key to the realization of fully functional photonic-integrated circuits. Despite several years of progress, however, all group IV lasers reported to date exhibit impractically high thresholds owing to their unfavorable bandstructures. Highly strained germanium with its fundamentally altered bandstructure has emerged as a potential low-threshold gain medium, but there has yet to be any successful demonstration of lasing from this seemingly promising material system. Here, we demonstrate a low-threshold, compact group IV laser that employs germanium nanowire under a 1.6% uniaxial tensile strain as the gain medium. The amplified material gain in strained germanium can sufficiently surmount optical losses at 83 K, thus allowing the first observation of multimode lasing with an optical pumping threshold density of ~3.0 kW cm^-^2. Our demonstration opens up a new horizon of group IV lasers for photonic-integrated circuits.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figure

Temperature Dependence of Electron Leakage Current in InGaN Blue Light-Emitting Diode Structures

We investigated the temperature dependence of the electron leakage current in the AlGaN electron-blocking layer (EBL) of an InGaN/GaN blue light-emitting diode (LED) structure at temperatures between 20 and 100 °C. The percentage of electron leakage current was experimentally determined by fitting the measured external quantum efficiency of an LED using the ABC recombination model. The electron leakage current decreased significantly as the temperature increased from 20 to 100 °C. The experiment obtained temperature-dependent electron leakage current was also found to agree well with the simulation results. This counter-intuitive temperature dependence of the electron leakage current resulted from an increase in potential barrier for electrons with increasing temperature due to the increased ionized acceptor concentration in the EBL with temperature. Moreover, the results obtained for the temperature-dependent electron leakage were consistent with the thermionic emission model. The results of the temperature dependence reported here are expected to provide insight into the thermal droop of GaN-based LEDs

Efficiency Droop and Effective Active Volume in GaN-Based Light-Emitting Diodes Grown on Sapphire and Silicon Substrates

We compared the efficiency droop of InGaN multiple-quantum-well (MQW) blue light-emitting diode (LED) structures grown on silicon(111) and c-plane sapphire substrates and analyzed the efficiency droop characteristics using the rate equation model with reduced effective active volume. The efficiency droop of the LED sample on silicon was observed to be reduced considerably compared with that of the identical LED sample on sapphire substrates. When the measured external quantum efficiency was fitted with the rate equation model, the effective active volume of the MQW on silicon was found to be ~1.45 times larger than that of the MQW on sapphire. The lower efficiency droop in the LED on silicon could be attributed to its larger effective active volume compared with the LED on sapphire. The simulation results showed that the effective active volume decreased as the internal electric fields increased, as a result of the reduced overlap of the electron and hole distribution inside the quantum well and the inhomogeneous carrier distribution in the MQWs. The difference in the internal electric field of the MQW between the LED on silicon and sapphire could be a major reason for the difference in the effective active volume, and consequently, the efficiency droop

Nanophotonic route to control electron behaviors in 2D materials

Two-dimensional (2D) Dirac materials, e.g., graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), are one-atom-thick monolayers whose electronic behaviors are described by the Dirac equation. These materials serve not only as test beds for novel quantum physics but also as promising constituents for nanophotonic devices. This review provides a brief overview of the recent effort to control Dirac electron behaviors using nanophotonics. We introduce a principle of light-2D Dirac matter interaction to offer a design guide for 2D Dirac material–based nanophotonic devices. We also discuss opportunities for coupling nanophotonics with externally perturbed 2D materials