Electrically pumped lasing from Ge Fabry-Perot resonators on Si

Abstract

Room temperature lasing from electrically pumped n-type doped Ge edge emitting devices has been observed. The edge emitter is formed by cleaving Si-Ge waveguide heterodiodes, providing optical feedback through a Fabry-Perot resonator. The electroluminescence spectra of the devices showed optical bleaching and intensity gain for wavelengths between 1660 nm and 1700 nm. This fits the theoretically predicted behavior for the n-type Ge material system. With further pulsed electrical injection of 500 kA/cm² it was possible to reach the lasing threshold for such edge emitters. Different lengths and widths of devices have been investigated in order to maintain best gain-absorption ratios.