Ga N-on-Si laser diode: open up a new era of Si-based optical interconnections

As Si-based electronics technology approaches its scaling limits,it arises great interest in optical interconnections via Si photonics.However,Si with an indirect band-gap structure can hardly emit light.The lack of an efficient onchip laser source remains as the major roadblock of Si photonics for decades,which recently has drawn renewed research interest.It is highly desirable to grow III–V semiconductor laser directly on Si for a monolithic integration with Si photonics to take the full advantage of lowcost large-scale fabrication platforms[1–3].

As Si-based electronics technology approaches its scaling limits, it arises great interest in optical interconnections via Si photonics. However, Si with an indirect band-gap structure can hardly emit light.