Reduced lasing thresholds in GeSn microdisk cavities with defect management of the optically active region

TL;DR

This study demonstrates reduced lasing thresholds in GeSn microdisk cavities by defect management, achieving efficient lasing at 2-2.3 micrometers with lower thresholds than previous reports, advancing GeSn laser technology on silicon.

Contribution

It introduces a defect removal process in GeSn microdisks that significantly lowers lasing thresholds, enabling more practical GeSn lasers on silicon substrates.

Findings

Lasing observed at 2-2.3 micrometers wavelength.

Thresholds around 10 kW/cm², an order of magnitude lower than prior work.

Defect management in the active region improves laser performance.

Abstract

GeSn alloys are nowadays considered as the most promising materials to build Group IV laser sources on silicon (Si) in a full complementary metal oxide semiconductor-compatible approach. Recent GeSn laser developments rely on increasing the band structure directness, by increasing the Sn content in thick GeSn layers grown on germanium (Ge) virtual substrates (VS) on Si. These lasers nonetheless suffer from a lack of defect management and from high threshold densities. In this work we examine the lasing characteristics of GeSn alloys with Sn contents ranging from 7 \% to 10.5 \%. The GeSn layers were patterned into suspended microdisk cavities with different diameters in the 4-\SI{8 }{\micro\meter} range. We evidence direct band gap in GeSn with 7 \% of Sn and lasing at 2-\SI{2.3 }{\micro\meter} wavelength under optical injection with reproducible lasing thresholds around \SI{10 }{\kilo\watt\per\square\centi\meter}, lower by one order of magnitude as compared to the literature. These results were obtained after the removal of the dense array of misfit dislocations in the active region of the GeSn microdisk cavities. The results offer new perspectives for future designs of GeSn-based laser sources.