Open AccessDirectly modulated 13 μm quantum dot lasers epitaxially grown on silicon
Author(s) -
Daisuke Inoue,
Daehwan Jung,
Justin Norman,
Yating Wan,
Nobuhiko Nishiyama,
Shigehisa Arai,
A. C. Gossard,
John E. Bowers
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.26.007022
Subject(s) - materials science , extinction ratio , optoelectronics , laser , quantum dot , optics , quantum dot laser , epitaxy , quantum well , semiconductor laser theory , substrate (aquarium) , layer (electronics) , physics , semiconductor , wavelength , nanotechnology , oceanography , geology
We report the first demonstration of direct modulation of InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) lasers grown on on-axis (001) Si substrate. A low threading dislocation density GaAs buffer layer enables us to grow a high quality 5-layered QD active region on on-axis Si substrate. The active layer has p-modulation doped GaAs barrier layers with a hole concentration of 5 × 10 17 cm -3 to suppress gain saturation. Small-signal measurement on a 3 × 580 μm 2 Fabry-Perot laser showed a 3dB bandwidth of 6.5 GHz at a bias current of 116 mA. A 12.5 Gbit/s non-return-to-zero signal modulation was achieved by directly probing the chip. Open eyes with an extinction ration of 3.3dB was observed at room temperature. The bit-error-rate (BER) curve showed no error-floor up to BER of 1 × 10 -13 . 12 km single-mode fiber transmission experiments using the QD laser on Si showed a low power penalty of 1 dB at 5Gbit/s. These results demonstrate the potential for QD lasers epitaxially grown on Si to be used as a low-cost light source for optical communication systems.