Band-gap and strain engineering in GeSn alloys using post-growth pulsed laser melting.

The pseudomorphic growth of Ge1-xSnxon Ge causes in-plane compressive strain, which degrades the superior properties of the Ge1-xSnxalloys. Therefore, efficient strain engineering is required. In this article, we present strain and band-gap engineering in Ge1-xSnxalloys grown on Ge a virtual substrate using post-growth nanosecond pulsed laser melting (PLM). Micro-Raman and x-ray diffraction (XRD) show that the initial in-plane compressive strain is removed. Moreover, for PLM energy densities higher than 0.5 J cm-2, the Ge0.89Sn0.11layer becomes tensile strained. Simultaneously, as revealed by Rutherford Backscattering spectrometry, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy investigations and XRD the crystalline quality and Sn-distribution in PLM-treated Ge0.89Sn0.11layers are only slightly affected. Additionally, the change of the band structure after PLM is confirmed by low-temperature photoreflectance measurements. The presented results prove that post-growth ns-range PLM is an effective way for band-gap and strain engineering in highly-mismatched alloys.

Material gain engineering in GeSn/Ge quantum wells integrated with an Si platform.

It is shown that compressively strained Ge1-xSnx/Ge quantum wells (QWs) grown on a Ge substrate with 0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.2 and width of 8 nm ≤ d ≤ 14 nm are a very promising gain medium for lasers integrated with an Si platform. Such QWs are type-I QWs with a direct bandgap and positive transverse electric mode of material gain, i.e. the modal gain. The electronic band structure near the center of Brillouin zone has been calculated for various Ge1-xSnx/Ge QWs with use of the 8-band kp Hamiltonian. To calculate the material gain for these QWs, occupation of the L valley in Ge barriers has been taken into account. It is clearly shown that this occupation has a lot of influence on the material gain in the QWs with low Sn concentrations (Sn < 15%) and is less important for QWs with larger Sn concentration (Sn > 15%). However, for QWs with Sn > 20% the critical thickness of a GeSn layer deposited on a Ge substrate starts to play an important role. Reduction in the QW width shifts up the ground electron subband in the QW and increases occupation of the L valley in the barriers instead of the Γ valley in the QW region.