The ever-growing communication traffic is pushing the traditional electronic interconnection to its limit. Silicon photonics (Si-photonics) is regarded as a highly competitive technology to ease this pressing issue. Si-photonics offers high-speed and large bandwidth interconnection with potential low-cost, scalable, and high-throughput manufacturing. In the photonic toolbox, Si-based passive components such as the low loss waveguide, high-efficiency grating coupler, and high-speed modulator have witnessed tremendous progress. However, light emission and detection still rely on non-Si material. III-V material with superior optical characteristics is an ideal candidate for light emission and detection. Furthermore, InP-based optical devices can be applied both in the O-band and C-band, le...[ Read more ]

The ever-growing communication traffic is pushing the traditional electronic interconnection to its limit. Silicon photonics (Si-photonics) is regarded as a highly competitive technology to ease this pressing issue. Si-photonics offers high-speed and large bandwidth interconnection with potential low-cost, scalable, and high-throughput manufacturing. In the photonic toolbox, Si-based passive components such as the low loss waveguide, high-efficiency grating coupler, and high-speed modulator have witnessed tremendous progress. However, light emission and detection still rely on non-Si material. III-V material with superior optical characteristics is an ideal candidate for light emission and detection. Furthermore, InP-based optical devices can be applied both in the O-band and C-band, leveraging the device technologies developed for photonic integrated circuits on InP for decades. Therefore, InP-based optical devices on Si are promising candidates for data communications in silicon photonics.

This thesis is devoted to the development of InP-based quantum dash photonic devices on III-V-on-Si template and III-V photonic devices on pre-patterned Si-on-insulator (SOI) substrates for monolithic integrated Si-photonics. First, we achieved electrically pumped room-temperature pulsed lasing of 1.3 µm lasers on Si and continuous wave (CW) lasing of 1.55 µm lasers on Si and studied the characteristics of the lasers on both Si and InP substrates. Different laser structures were demonstrated and compared in terms of laser performance. A systematic comparison of lasing dynamics shows that the lasers on silicon substrates are comparable with the lasers fabricated on native InP substrates. With the same epitaxial structure, quantum dash photodetectors on Si were demonstrated with the device performance among the best of the state-of-the-art research reported for quantum dash photodetectors on Si and native substrates.

Secondly, to couple the III-V active devices with passive waveguides efficiently, we developed photonic devices on pre-patterned SOI. We designed and fabricated various patterned SOI as growth templates for the vertical selective epitaxy and lateral selective epitaxy. Bufferless photodetectors on pre-patterned SOI in vertical configuration were first demonstrated. The feasibility of electrically pumped lasers and photonic integrated circuits on this platform were analyzed. To minimize the height difference between active devices and passive components, we designed a lateral integration scheme. High-performance in-plane photodetectors on pre-patterned SOI in lateral configuration were demonstrated. Furthermore, Si-waveguide integrated III-V photodetectors were fabricated using demonstrated high-performance photodetectors. Finally, the approaches to achieve telecom lasers on this platform were investigated and telecom band lasing was achieved by fabricating micro-ring lasers on SOI. And the feasibility and design of realizing electrically pumped lasers and photonic integrated circuits on this platform were presented. The III-V photonic devices are shown to be qualified candidates for future data communications in silicon photonics thereby paving the way towards fully integrated silicon photonics.