Continuous-Wave Electrically Injected GaN-on-Si Microdisk Laser Diodes

Silicon photonics has been calling for an electrically pumped on-chip light source at room temperature for decades. A GaN-based microdisk laser diode with whispering gallery modes grown on Si is a promising candidate for compact on-chip light source. By suppressing the unintentional incorporation of carbon impurity in the p-type AlGaN cladding layer of the laser, we have significantly reduced the operation voltage and threshold current of the GaN-on-Si microdisk laser. Meanwhile the radius of the microdisk laser was shrunk to 8 µm to lower the thermal power. The overall junction temperature of the microdisk laser was effectively reduced. As a result, the first continuous-wave electrically pumped InGaN-based microdisk laser grown on Si was achieved at room temperature.