Room-temperature lasing action in GaN quantum wells in the infrared 1.5 micron region

TL;DR

This paper reports the achievement of room-temperature stimulated emission at 1.5 microns from Er-doped GaN quantum wells on silicon and sapphire, advancing integrated optoelectronic devices compatible with silicon technology.

Contribution

It demonstrates for the first time room-temperature lasing in Er-doped GaN quantum wells at 1.5 microns on silicon and sapphire substrates, enabling potential integration with silicon photonics.

Findings

Optical gain up to 170 cm-1 in GaN quantum wells.

Observation of threshold behavior and spectral linewidth narrowing.

Successful synthesis of Er-doped GaN layers on silicon and sapphire.

Abstract

Large-scale optoelectronics integration is strongly limited by the lack of efficient light sources, which could be integrated with the silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Persistent efforts continue to achieve efficient light emission from silicon in the extending the silicon technology into fully integrated optoelectronic circuits. Here, we report the realization of room-temperature stimulated emission in the technologically crucial 1.5 micron wavelength range from Er-doped GaN multiple-quantum wells on silicon and sapphire. Employing the well-acknowledged variable stripe technique, we have demonstrated an optical gain up to 170 cm-1 in the multiple-quantum well structures. The observation of the stimulated emission is accompanied by the characteristic threshold behavior of emission intensity as a function of pump fluence, spectral linewidth narrowing and excitation length. The demonstration of room-temperature lasing at the minimum loss window of optical fibers and in the eye-safe wavelength region of 1.5 micron are highly sought-after for use in many applications including defense, industrial processing, communication, medicine, spectroscopy and imaging. As the synthesis of Er-doped GaN epitaxial layers on silicon and sapphire has been successfully demonstrated, the results laid the foundation for achieving hybrid GaN-Si lasers providing a new pathway towards full photonic integration for silicon optoelectronics.