Intersubband lasing in silicon-based quantum well structures

✍ Scribed by G. Sun; L. Friedman; R.A. Soref

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 145 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0749-6036
• DOI: 10.1006/spmi.1996.0337

✦ Synopsis

Because of the absence of polar optical phonon scattering, the lifetime difference of the upper and lower lasing levels, to which population inversion and laser gain are proportional, is an order of magnitude larger in silicon-based structures than in the III-Vs. Further enhancements are due to phonon confinement. For lasing wavelengths 10 µm and longer, Ge x Si 1-x /Si is used. For operation at near infrared wavelengths (1.55 µm), high barrier materials are needed. To avoid large operating voltages, designs are considered which rely on parallel rather than sequential operation.