High-temperature reliable quantum-dot lasers on Si with misfit and threading dislocation filters

Abstract

Direct epitaxial growth of III-V light sources on Si photonic chips is promising to realize low-cost and high-functionality photonic integrated circuits. Historically, high temperature reliability of such devices has been the major roadblock due to crystalline defects from heteroepitaxy. Here, by reducing the threading dislocation densities to ∼ 1 × 1 0 6 c m − 2 and efficiently removing misfit dislocations above and below the active region, 1.3 µm InAs quantum-dot lasers directly grown on industry standard on-axis Si (001) show record-breaking reliability at 80°C. The hero device shows minimum degradation after more than 1200 h of constant current stress. Statistical analysis shows an extrapolated lifetime of over 22 years for the median devices, bringing these devices one big step closer to real world applications.