Three-dimensional inter-layer optical signal transmission realized by a monolithically integrated semiconductor-based carrier transport structure.

In this study, we proposed and demonstrated a brand new type of monolithic photonic devices which realizes the three-dimensional (3D) all-optical switching for inter-layer signal transmission. This device is composed of a vertical Si microrod which serves as optical absorption material within a SiN waveguide in one layer and as an index modulation structure within a SiN microdisk resonator lying in the other layer. The ambipolar photo-carrier transport property in the Si microrod was studied by measuring the resonant wavelength shifts under continuous-wave laser pumping. The ambipolar diffusion length can be extracted to be 0.88 µm. Based on the ambipolar photo-carrier transport in a Si microrod through different layers, we presented a fully-integrated all-optical switching operation using this Si microrod and a SiN microdisk with a pump-probe technique through the on-chip SiN waveguides. The switching time windows for the on-resonance operation mode and the off-resonance operation mode can be extracted to be 439 ps and 87 ps, respectively. This device shows potential applications for the future all-optical computing and communication with more practical and flexible configurations in monolithic 3D photonic integrated circuits (3D-PICs).

Minority carrier decay length extraction from scanning photocurrent profiles in two-dimensional carrier transport structures.

Carrier transport was studied both numerically and experimentally using scanning photocurrent microscopy (SPCM) in two-dimensional (2D) transport structures, where the structure size in the third dimension is much smaller than the diffusion length and electrodes cover the whole terminal on both sides. Originally, one would expect that with increasing width in 2D transport structures, scanning photocurrent profiles will gradually deviate from those of the ideal one-dimensional (1D) transport structure. However, the scanning photocurrent simulation results surprisingly showed almost identical profiles from structures with different widths. In order to clarify this phenomenon, we observed the spatial distribution of carriers. The simulation results indicate that the integrated carrier distribution in the 2D transport structures with finite width can be well described by a simple-exponential-decay function with the carrier decay length as the fitting parameter, just like in the 1D transport structures. For ohmic-contact 2D transport structures, the feasibility of the fitting formula from our previous 1D analytical model was confirmed. On the other hand, the application of a simple-exponential-decay function in scanning photocurrent profiles for the diffusion length extraction in Schottky-contact 2D transport structures was also justified. Furthermore, our simulation results demonstrate that the scanning photocurrent profiles in the ohmic- or Schottky-contact three-dimensional (3D) transport structures with electrodes covering the whole terminal on both sides will reduce to those described by the corresponding 1D fitting formulae. Finally, experimental SPCM on a p-type InGaAs air-bridge two-terminal thin-film device was carried out. The measured photocurrent profiles can be well fitted by the specific fitting formula derived from our previous 1D analytical model and the extracted electron mobility-lifetime product of this thin-film device is 6.6 × 10-7 cm2·V-1. This study allows us to extract the minority carrier decay length and to obtain the mobility-lifetime product which can be used to evaluate the performance of 2D carrier transport devices.

A New Fitting Method for Ambipolar Diffusion Length Extraction in Thin Film Structures Using Photoluminescence Measurement with Scanning Excitation.

A new simple method is proposed to extract the ambipolar diffusion length for two-dimensional (2D) electronic transport in thin film structures using a scanning photoluminescence microscopy (SPLM) setup. No spatially-resolved photoluminescence detection methods are required. By measuring the excitation-position-dependent PL intensity across the edge of a semiconductor, ambipolar diffusion length can be extracted from the SPLM profile through a simple analytic fitting function. Numerical simulation was first used to verify the fitting method. Then the fitting method was applied to extract the ambipolar diffusion length from the measured SPLM profile of a GaAs thin film structure. Carrier lifetime was obtained in an accompanying time-resolved photoluminescence measurement under the same excitation condition, and thus the ambipolar diffusion coefficient can be determined simultaneously. The new fitting method provides a simple way to evaluate carrier transport properties in 2D electronic transport structures such as thin films or quantum wells.

A New Analytic Formula for Minority Carrier Decay Length Extraction from Scanning Photocurrent Profiles in Ohmic-Contact Nanowire Devices.

Spatially resolved current measurements such as scanning photocurrent microscopy (SPCM) have been extensively applied to investigate carrier transport properties in semiconductor nanowires. A traditional simple-exponential-decay formula based on the assumption of carrier diffusion dominance in the scanning photocurrent profiles can be applied for carrier diffusion length extraction using SPCM in Schottky-contact-based or p-n junction-based devices where large built-in electric fields exist. However, it is also important to study the electric-field dependent transport properties in widely used ohmic-contact nanowire devices where the assumption of carrier diffusion dominance is invalid. Here we derive an analytic formula for scanning photocurrent profiles in such ohmic-contact nanowire devices under uniform applied electric fields and weak optical excitation. Under these operation conditions and the influence of photo-carrier-induced electric field, the scanning photocurrent profile and the carrier spatial distribution strikingly do not share the same functional form. Instead, a surprising new analytic relation between the scanning photocurrent profile and the minority carrier decay length was established. Then the derived analytic formula was validated numerically and experimentally. This analytic formula provides a new fitting method for SPCM profiles to correctly determine the minority carrier decay length, which allows us to quantitatively evaluate the performance of nanowire-based devices.

InAsSb/InAsPSb multiple quantum well disk cavities with pedestal structures on a GaSb substrate for mid-infrared whispering-gallery-mode emission beyond 4 µm.

The mid-infrared whispering-gallery-mode disk cavities with InAs0.85Sb0.15/InAs0.53P0.23Sb0.24 multiple quantum wells active medium on a GaSb substrate were fabricated. For this material system in the mid-infrared range, fabrication techniques were developed to form the disk cavity structure. The smooth sidewalls of the disk cavities were achieved by appropriate gas mixture flow ratio of BCl3/Ar in the inductively coupled plasma-reactive ion etching. In addition, selective wet etching technique was used to form the pedestal of the disk cavity using dilute hydrofluoric acid with good selectivity. For efficient confinement of the whispering gallery modes along the radial direction, the extent of the lateral etching was carefully controlled. The processed 30-µm-diameter disk cavities were optically pumped, and the whispering gallery modes with wavelengths around 4.1 µm can be observed up to 90 K.

All-optical switching in GaAs microdisk resonators by a femtosecond pump-probe technique through tapered-fiber coupling.

We demonstrate ultrafast all-optical switching in GaAs microdisk resonators using a femtosecond pump-probe technique through tapered-fiber coupling. The temporal tuning of the resonant modes resulted from the refractive index change due to photoexcited carrier density variation inside the GaAs microdisk resonator. Transmission through the GaAs microdisk resonator can be modulated by more than 10 dB with a switching time window of 8 ps in the switch-off operation using pumping pulses with energies as low as 17.5 pJ. The carrier lifetime was fitted to be 42 ps, much shorter than that of the bulk GaAs, typically of the order of nanoseconds. The above observation indicates that the surface recombination plays an important role in increasing the switching speed.

Transient behaviors of current-injection quantum-dot microdisk lasers.

We studied the transient behaviors of current-injection quantum-dot microdisk lasers at room temperature. Unique optical responses were observed, including the suppression of relaxation oscillations and fast turn-on. With the help of rate-equation modeling, the suppressed relaxation oscillations are attributed to the enhanced spontaneous emission factor in microdisk lasers. Short turn-on time, around 1 ns without pre-bias, results from the reduced carrier lifetime caused by the Purcell effect and increased nonradiative recombination rate due to higher surface/volume ratio. With short turn-on time, a large-signal direct modulation experiment at 1 Gbps is demonstrated. Modal transient behavior was also investigated under various temperatures from 100 to 300 K. Both of the transient lasing and steady-state lasing from side modes are suppressed at temperatures higher than 250K. Therefore, the quantum-dot microdisk lasers show the potential of single-mode operation under high-speed modulation at room temperature.

Room-temperature low-threshold current-injection InGaAs quantum-dot microdisk lasers with single-mode emission.

We fabricated current-injection InGaAs quantum-dot microdisk lasers with benzocyclobutene cladding in this work. The microdisk pedestal diameter is carefully designed to facilitate carrier injection and modal control. With this structure, low threshold current of 0.45 mA is achieved at room temperature from a device of 6.5 µm in diameter with single-mode emission from quantum-dot ground states. The negative characteristic temperature T0 of threshold current is observed between 80 K and 150 K. The transition temperature from negative T0 to positive T0 is 150 K which is higher than that of the edge-emitting lasers fabricated from the same wafer. This phenomenon indicates the lower loss level of our microdisk cavities. These microdisk lasers also show positive T0 significantly higher than that of the edge-emitting lasers from the same wafer.