Heterogeneously integrated III-V laser on thin SOI with compact optical vertical interconnect access.

A new heterogeneously integrated III-V/Si laser structure is reported in this report that consists of a III-V ridge waveguide gain section on silicon, III-V/Si optical vertical interconnect accesses (VIAs), and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nanophotonic waveguide sections. The III-V semiconductor layers are introduced on top of the 300-nm-thick SOI layer through low temperature, plasma-assisted direct wafer-bonding and etched to form a III-V ridge waveguide on silicon as the gain section. The optical VIA is formed by tapering the III-V and the beneath SOI in the same direction with a length of 50 μm for efficient coupling of light down to the 600 nm wide silicon nanophotonic waveguide or vice versa. Fabrication details and specification characterizations of this heterogeneous III-V/Si Fabry–Perot (FP) laser are given. The fabricated FP laser shows a continuous-wave lasing with a threshold current of 65 mA at room temperature, and the slope efficiency from single facet is 144  mW/A. The maximal single facet emitting power is about 4.5 mW at a current of 100 mA, and the side-mode suppression ratio is ∼30  dB. This new heterogeneously integrated III-V/Si laser structure demonstrated enables more complex laser configuration with a sub-system on-chip for various applications.