David S. Sukhdeo

Direct bandgap germanium-on-silicon inferred from 5.7% 〈100〉 uniaxial tensile strain [Invited]

We report uniaxial tensile strains up to 5.7% along 〈100〉 in suspended germanium (Ge) wires on a silicon substrate, measured using Raman spectroscopy. This strain is sufficient to make Ge a direct bandgap semiconductor. Theoretical calculations show that a significant fraction of electrons remain in the indirect conduction valley despite the direct bandgap due to the much larger density of states; however, recombination can nevertheless be dominated by radiative direct bandgap transitions if defects are minimized. We then calculate the theoretical efficiency of direct bandgap Ge LEDs and lasers. These strained Ge wires represent a direct bandgap Group IV semiconductor integrated directly on a silicon platform.

Electroluminescence from strained germanium membranes and implications for an efficient Si-compatible laser

We demonstrate room-temperature electroluminescence (EL) from light-emitting diodes (LED) on highly strained germanium (Ge) membranes. An external stressor technique was employed to introduce a 0.76% bi-axial tensile strain in the active region of a vertical PN junction. Electrical measurements show an on-off ratio increase of one order of magnitude in membrane LEDs compared to bulk. The EL spectrum from the 0.76% strained Ge LED shows a 100nm redshift of the center wavelength because of the strain-induced direct band gap reduction. Finally, using tight-binding and FDTD simulations, we discuss the implications for highly efficient Ge lasers.

Strain-Induced Pseudoheterostructure Nanowires Confining Carriers at Room Temperature with Nanoscale-Tunable Band Profiles

Semiconductor heterostructures play a vital role in photonics and electronics. They are typically realized by growing layers of different materials, complicating fabrication and limiting the number of unique heterojunctions on a wafer. In this Letter, we present single-material nanowires which behave exactly like traditional heterostructures. These pseudoheterostructures have electronic band profiles that are custom-designed at the nanoscale by strain engineering. Since the band profile depends only on the nanowire geometry with this approach, arbitrary band profiles can be individually tailored at the nanoscale using existing nanolithography. We report the first experimental observations of spatially confined, greatly enhanced (>200×), and wavelength-shifted (>500 nm) emission from strain-induced potential wells that facilitate effective carrier collection at room temperature. This work represents a fundamentally new paradigm for creating nanoscale devices with full heterostructure behavior in photonics and electronics.

Direct Bandgap Light Emission from Strained Germanium Nanowires Coupled with High-Q Nanophotonic Cavities

A silicon-compatible light source is the final missing piece for completing high-speed, low-power on-chip optical interconnects. In this paper, we present a germanium nanowire light emitter that encompasses all the aspects of potential low-threshold lasers: highly strained germanium gain medium, strain-induced pseudoheterostructure, and high-Q nanophotonic cavity. Our nanowire structure presents greatly enhanced photoluminescence into cavity modes with measured quality factors of up to 2000. By varying the dimensions of the germanium nanowire, we tune the emission wavelength over more than 400 nm with a single lithography step. We find reduced optical loss in optical cavities formed with germanium under high (>2.3%) tensile strain. Our compact, high-strain cavities open up new possibilities for low-threshold germanium-based lasers for on-chip optical interconnects.

Study of Carrier Statistics in Uniaxially Strained Ge for a Low-Threshold Ge Laser

In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of carrier statistics in germanium with high uniaxial strain along the [100] direction. Several types of PL experiments were conducted to investigate polarization-, temperature- and excitation-dependent carrier statistics in germanium under various amounts of uniaxial strain. With the ability to clearly resolve multiple photoluminescence peaks originating from strain-induced valence band splitting, we experimentally observed strongly polarized light emission from direct band gap transitions. Our experiments also confirm that uniaxial strain increases the hole population in the highest valence band as well as the electron population in the direct conduction band. Based upon our experimental results, we present theoretical modeling showing that the lasing threshold of a germanium laser can be reduced by >100× with 2.5% strain.

Bandgap-customizable germanium using lithographically determined biaxial tensile strain for silicon-compatible optoelectronics.

Strain engineering has proven to be vital for germanium-based photonics, in particular light emission. However, applying a large permanent biaxial tensile strain to germanium has been a challenge. We present a simple, CMOS-compatible technique to conveniently induce a large, spatially homogenous strain in circular structures patterned within germanium nanomembranes. Our technique works by concentrating and amplifying a pre-existing small strain into a circular region. Biaxial tensile strains as large as 1.11% are observed by Raman spectroscopy and are further confirmed by photoluminescence measurements, which show enhanced and redshifted light emission from the strained germanium. Our technique allows the amount of biaxial strain to be customized lithographically, allowing the bandgaps of different germanium structures to be independently customized in a single mask process.

Impact of minority carrier lifetime on the performance of strained germanium light sources

Abstract We theoretically investigate the impact of the defect-limited carrier lifetime on the performance of germanium (Ge) light sources. For Ge LEDs, we show that improving the material quality can offer even greater enhancements than techniques such as tensile strain, the leading approach for enhancing Ge light emission. For Ge lasers, we show that the defect-limited lifetime becomes increasing important as tensile strain is introduced, and that defect-limited lifetime must be improved if the full benefits of strain are to be realized. We conversely show that improving the material quality supersedes much of the utility of n-type doping for Ge lasers.

Ultimate limits of biaxial tensile strain and n-type doping for realizing an efficient low-threshold Ge laser

We theoretically investigate the methodology involved in the minimization of the threshold of a Ge-on-Si laser and maximization of the slope efficiency in the presence of both biaxial tensile strain and n-type doping. Our findings suggest that there exist ultimate limits beyond which no further benefit can be realized through increased tensile strain or n-type doping. In this study, we quantify these limits, showing that the optimal design for minimizing threshold involves approximately 3.7% biaxial tensile strain and 2 × 1018 cm−3 n-type doping, whereas the optimal design for maximum slope efficiency involves approximately 2.3% biaxial tensile strain with 1 × 1019 cm−3 n-type doping. Increasing the strain and doping beyond these limits will degrade the threshold and slope efficiency, respectively.

Ge microdisk with lithographically-tunable strain using CMOS-compatible process.

We present germanium microdisk optical resonators under a large biaxial tensile strain using a CMOS-compatible fabrication process. Biaxial tensile strain of ~0.7% is achieved by means of a stress concentration technique that allows the strain level to be customized by carefully selecting certain lithographic dimensions. The partial strain relaxation at the edges of a patterned germanium microdisk is compensated by depositing compressively stressed silicon nitride layer. Two-dimensional Raman spectroscopy measurements along with finite-element method simulations confirm a relatively homogeneous strain distribution within the final microdisk structure. Photoluminescence results show clear optical resonances due to whispering gallery modes which are in good agreement with finite-difference time-domain optical simulations. Our bandgap-customizable microdisks present a new route towards an efficient germanium light source for on-chip optical interconnects.

Theoretical Modeling for the Interaction of Tin Alloying With N-Type Doping and Tensile Strain for GeSn Lasers

We investigate the interaction of tin alloying with tensile strain and n-type doping for improving the performance of a Ge-based laser for on-chip optical interconnects. Using a modified tight-binding formalism that incorporates the effect of tin alloying on conduction band changes, we calculate how threshold current density and slope efficiency are affected by tin alloying in the presence of tensile strain and n-type doping. Our results show that while there exists a negative interaction between tin alloying and n-type doping, tensile strain can be effectively combined with tin alloying to dramatically improve the Ge gain medium in terms of both reducing the threshold and increasing the expected slope efficiency. Through quantitative modeling, we find that the best design is to include large amounts of both tin alloying and tensile strain but only moderate amounts of n-type doping, if researchers seek to achieve the best possible performance in a Ge-based laser.