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Optical gain and stimulated emission in periodic nanopatterned crystalline silicon

Nature Materials volume 4, pages 887–891 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Persistent efforts have been made to achieve efficient light emission from silicon1,2,3,4,5,6,7 in the hope of extending the reach of silicon technology into fully integrated optoelectronic circuits, meeting the needs for high-bandwidth intrachip and interchip connects8. Enhanced light emission from silicon is known to be theoretically possible9,10, enabled mostly through quantum-confinement effects2,3,4. Furthermore, Raman-laser conversion was demonstrated in silicon waveguides11,12. Here we report on optical gain and stimulated emission in uniaxially nanopatterned silicon-on-insulator using a nanopore array as an etching mask13. In edge-emission measurements, we observed threshold behaviour, optical gain, longitudinal cavity modes and linewidth narrowing, along with a collimated far-field pattern, all indicative of amplification and stimulated emission14,15,16,17. The sub-bandgap 1,278 nm emission peak is attributed to A-centre mediated phononless direct recombination between trapped electrons and free holes18,19,20. The controlled nanoscale silicon engineering, combined with the low material loss in this sub-bandgap spectral range and the long electron lifetime in such A-type trapping centres, gives rise to the measured optical gain and stimulated emission and provides a new pathway to enhance light emission from silicon.

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Figure 1: Edge-emission spectra and nanopatterned-silicon structure.
Figure 2: Evolution of the edge-emission intensity of the 1,278 nm line as a function of pump power.
Figure 3: Spectral features of the 1,278-nm edge-emission line.
Figure 4: Optical gain at 1,278 nm and lateral far-field pattern.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the timely and enabling support from ONR and DARPA. S.G.C. and J.X. are also grateful to NSERC and the Guggenheim Foundation, respectively, for the fellowship support.

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  1. Division of Engineering and Department of Physics, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

    Sylvain G. Cloutier, Pavel A. Kossyrev & Jimmy Xu

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Correspondence to Jimmy Xu.

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Cloutier, S., Kossyrev, P. & Xu, J. Optical gain and stimulated emission in periodic nanopatterned crystalline silicon. Nature Mater 4, 887–891 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1530

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