Recent Progress of Quantum Dot Lasers Monolithically Integrated on Si Platform

With continuously growing global data traffic, silicon (Si)-based photonic integrated circuits have emerged as a promising solution for high-performance Intra-/Inter-chip optical communication. However, a lack of a Si-based light source remains to be solved due to the inefficient light-emitting property of Si. To tackle the absence of a native light source, integrating III-V lasers, which provide superior optical and electrical properties, has been extensively investigated. Remarkably, the use of quantum dots as an active medium in III-V lasers has attracted considerable interest because of various advantages, such as tolerance to crystalline defects, temperature insensitivity, low threshold current density and reduced reflection sensitivity. This paper reviews the recent progress of III-V quantum dot lasers monolithically integrated on the Si platform in terms of the different cavity types and sizes and discusses the future scope and application

Monolithic quantum-dot distributed feedback laser array on silicon

Electrically-pumped lasers directly grown on silicon are key devices interfacing silicon microelectronics and photonics. We report here, for the first time, an electrically-pumped, room-temperature, continuous-wave (CW) and single-mode distributed feedback (DFB) laser array fabricated in InAs/GaAs quantum-dot (QD) gain material epitaxially grown on silicon. CW threshold currents as low as 12 mA and single-mode side mode suppression ratios (SMSRs) as high as 50 dB have been achieved from individual devices in the array. The laser array, compatible with state-of-the-art coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) systems, has a well-aligned channel spacing of 20 0.2 nm and exhibits a record wavelength coverage range of 100 nm, the full span of the O-band. These results indicate that, for the first time, the performance of lasers epitaxially grown on silicon is elevated to a point approaching real-world CWDM applications, demonstrating the great potential of this technology

A Forward-Secure Certificate-based Signature Scheme

Cryptographic computations are often carried out on insecure devices for which the threat of key exposure raises a serious concern. In an effort to address the key exposure problem, the notion of forward security was first presented by Günther in 1990. In a forward-secure scheme, secret keys are updated at regular periods of time; exposure of the secret key corresponding to a given time period does not enable an adversary to ‘break’ the scheme for any prior time period. In this paper, we first introduce forward security into certificate-based cryptography and define the security model of forward-secure certificate-based signatures (CBSs). Then we propose a forward-secure CBS scheme, which is shown to be secure against adaptive chosen message attacks under the computational Diffie–Hellman assumption in the random oracle model. Our result can be viewed as the first step toward solving the key exposure problem in CBSs and thus improving the security of the whole system

Extensive analysis of D7S486 in primary gastric cancer supports TESTIN as a candidate tumor suppressor gene

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>High frequency of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) was found at D7S486 in primary gastric cancer (GC). And we found a high frequency of LOH region on 7q31 in primary GC from China, and identified D7S486 to be the most frequent LOH locus. This study was aimed to determine what genes were affected by the LOH and served as tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) in this region. Here, a high-throughput single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) microarray fabricated in-house was used to analyze the LOH status around D7S486 on 7q31 in 75 patients with primary GC. Western blot, immunohistochemistry, and RT-PCR were used to assess the protein and mRNA expression of TESTIN (TES) in 50 and 140 primary GC samples, respectively. MTS assay was used to investigate the effect of TES overexpression on the proliferation of GC cell lines. Mutation and methylation analysis were performed to explore possible mechanisms of TES inactivation in GC.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>LOH analysis discovered five candidate genes (<it>ST7</it>, <it>FOXP2</it>, <it>MDFIC</it>, <it>TES </it>and <it>CAV1</it>) whose frequencies of LOH were higher than 30%. However, only <it>TES </it>showed the potential to be a TSG associated with GC. Among 140 pairs of GC samples, decreased <it>TES </it>mRNA level was found in 96 (68.6%) tumor tissues when compared with matched non-tumor tissues (<it>p </it>< 0.001). Also, reduced TES protein level was detected in 36 (72.0%) of all 50 tumor tissues by Western blot (<it>p </it>= 0.001). In addition, immunohistochemical staining result was in agreement with that of RT-PCR and Western blot. Down regulation of TES was shown to be correlated with tumor differentiation (<it>p </it>= 0.035) and prognosis (<it>p </it>= 0.035, log-rank test). Its overexpression inhibited the growth of three GC cell lines. Hypermethylation of <it>TES </it>promoter was a frequent event in primary GC and GC cell lines. However, no specific gene mutation was observed in the coding region of the <it>TES </it>gene.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Collectively, all results support the role of <it>TES </it>as a TSG in gastric carcinogenesis and that <it>TES </it>is inactivated primarily by LOH and CpG island methylation.</p

Room-temperature continuous-wave Dirac-vortex topological lasers on silicon

Robust laser sources are a fundamental building block for contemporary information technologies. Originating from condensed-matter physics, the concept of topology has recently entered the realm of optics, offering fundamentally new design principles for lasers with enhanced robustness. In analogy to the well-known Majorana fermions in topological superconductors, Dirac-vortex states have recently been investigated in passive photonic systems and are now considered as a promising candidate for single-mode large-area lasers. Here, we experimentally realize the first Dirac-vortex topological lasers in InAs/InGaAs quantum-dot materials monolithically grown on a silicon substrate. We observe room-temperature continuous-wave single-mode linearly polarized vertical laser emission at a telecom wavelength. Most importantly, we confirm that the wavelength of the Dirac-vortex laser is topologically robust against variations in the cavity size, and its free spectral range defies the universal inverse scaling law with the cavity size. These lasers will play an important role in CMOS-compatible photonic and optoelectronic systems on a chip

Room-temperature continuous-wave topological Dirac-vortex microcavity lasers on silicon

Robust laser sources are a fundamental building block for contemporary information technologies. Originating from condensed-matter physics, the concept of topology has recently entered the realm of optics, offering fundamentally new design principles for lasers with enhanced robustness. In analogy to the well-known Majorana fermions in topological superconductors, Dirac-vortex states have recently been investigated in passive photonic systems and are now considered as a promising candidate for robust lasers. Here, we experimentally realize the topological Dirac-vortex microcavity lasers in InAs/InGaAs quantum-dot materials monolithically grown on a silicon substrate. We observe room-temperature continuous-wave linearly polarized vertical laser emission at a telecom wavelength. We confirm that the wavelength of the Dirac-vortex laser is topologically robust against variations in the cavity size, and its free spectral range defies the universal inverse scaling law with the cavity size. These lasers will play an important role in CMOS-compatible photonic and optoelectronic systems on a chip

The Epitaxial Growth and Unique Morphology of InAs Quantum Dots Embedded in a Ge Matrix

In this work, we investigated the epitaxial growth of InAs quantum dots (QDs) on Ge substrates. By varying the growth parameters of growth temperature, deposition thickness and growth rate of InAs, a high density of 1.2 ×1011 cm-2 self-assembled InAs QDs were successfully epitaxially grown on Ge substrates by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and capped by Ge layers. Pyramidal- and polyhedral-shaped InAs QDs embedded in Ge matrices were revealed, which are distinct from the lens- or truncated pyramid-shape dots in InAs/GaAs or InAs/Si systems. Moreover, with 200 nm Ge capping layer, one third of the embedded QDs are found with ellipse and hexagonal nanovoids with sizes of 7 – 9 nm, which is observed for the first time for InAs QDs embedded in a Ge matrix to the best of our knowledge. These results provide a new possibility of integrating InAs QD devices on Group-IV platforms for Si photonics

Revealing silicon crystal defects by conductive atomic force microscope

The machining and polishing of silicon can damage its surface. Therefore, the investigation of the electric performance of the processed surface is of paramount importance for understanding and improving the utilization of silicon components with nanoscale crystal defects. In this study, conductivity of nanoscratches on the silicon surface was investigated using a conductive atomic force microscope. Compared to the original silicon surface (without any treatment), electrical breakover at low bias voltage could be detected on the mechanically scratched area of the silicon surface with crystal defects, and the current increased with the voltage. In contrast, no obvious current was found on the defect-free scratch created by tribochemical removal. The conductivity could also be observed on a friction-induced protrusive hillock created at high speed but not on a hillock created at low speed that is constructed by amorphous silicon. Further analysis showed that lattice distortions could facilitate easy electron flow and contributed significantly to the conductivity of a mechanical scratch on the silicon surface; however, the amorphous layer hardly contributed to the conductivity, which was also supported by high resolution transmission electron microscope analysis. As a result, the relationship between the electrical performance and microstructures was experimentally established. These findings shed new light on the subtle mechanism of defectdependent conductivity and also provide a rapid and nondestructive method for detecting surface defects

Evolutionary Analysis of Structural Protein Gene VP1 of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype Asia 1

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) serotype Asia 1 was mostly endemic in Asia and then was responsible for economically important viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals, but the study on its selection and evolutionary process is comparatively rare. In this study, we characterized 377 isolates from Asia collected up until 2012, including four vaccine strains. Maximum likelihood analysis suggested that the strains circulating in Asia were classified into 8 different groups (groups I–VIII) or were unclassified (viruses collected before 2000). On the basis of divergence time analyses, we infer that the TMRCA of Asia 1 virus existed approximately 86.29 years ago. The result suggested that the virus had a high mutation rate (5.745 × 10−3 substitutions/site/year) in comparison to the other serotypes of FMDV VP1 gene. Furthermore, the structural protein VP1 was under lower selection pressure and the positive selection occurred at many sites, and four codons (positions 141, 146, 151, and 169) were located in known critical antigenic residues. The remaining sites were not located in known functional regions and were moderately conserved, and the reason for supporting all sites under positive selection remains to be elucidated because the power of these analyses was largely unknown