Ultra-low-threshold continuous-wave and pulsed lasing in tensile-strained GeSn alloys
Anas Elbaz, Dan Buca, Nils von den Driesch, Konstantinos Pantzas, G. Patriarche, N. Zerounian, Étienne Herth, Xavier Chécoury, S. Sauvage, I. Sagnes, Antonino Foti, Razvigor Ossikovski, Hartmann, J-M, Boeuf, F, Z. Ikonić, P. Boucaud, Detlev Grützmacher, M. El Kurdi
Abstract
Strained GeSn alloys are promising for realizing light emitters based entirely on group IV elements. Here, we report GeSn microdisk lasers encapsulated with a SiNx stressor layer to produce tensile strain. A 300 nm-thick GeSn layer with 5.4 at% Sn, which is an indirect-bandgap semiconductor as-grown, is transformed via tensile strain engineering into a direct-bandgap semiconductor that supports lasing. In this approach, the low Sn concentration enables improved defect engineering and the tensile strain delivers a low density of states at the valence band edge, which is the light hole band. We observe ultra-low-threshold continuous-wave and pulsed lasing at temperatures up to 70 K and 100 K, respectively. Lasers operating at a wavelength of 2.5 μm have thresholds of 0.8 kW cm−2 for nanosecond pulsed optical excitation and 1.1 kW cm−2 under continuous-wave optical excitation. The results offer a path towards monolithically integrated group IV laser sources on a Si photonics platform.