Silicon rich nitride for silicon based laser devices

Silicon based light sources, especially laser devices, are the key components required to achieve a complete integrated silicon photonics system. However, the fundamental physical limitation of the silicon material as light emitter and the limited understanding of tli~ excitation mechanism of Er in dielectric media by optical and electrical pumping methods impedes the progress of the research activities in this area. Silicon rich nitride (SRN) has been investigated as a strong candidate for silicon based laser devices. SRN has many advantages over other Si-based materials systems. These advantages include a high electrical injection level at low voltages, a low annealing temperature for Si nanocluster (Si-nc) formation and a large refractive index for strong optical confinement. Strong light emission from localized states in Si-nc embedded in SRN was demonstrated with a PLQE (Photoluminescence Quantum Efficiency) of 7%. This effect was confirmed through several experiments and first principle calculations. Thue Morse aperiodic structures were fabricated with light emitting SRN and SiO2 materials, for the first time. Through the resonance phenomena achieved using this approach an emission enhancement of a factor of 6 was demonstrated experimentally. A sequential annealing technique was investigated to enhance the light emission from the Si-nc based light emitter. Electrical injection was greatly improved with annealing treatments of SRN based devices. In particular, bipolar electrical injection into SRN led to electroluminescence which was comparable to photoluminescence in peak shape and spectral position. Er doped SRN (Er:SRN) was fabricated through a co-sputter technique to achieve light emission at the wavelength of 1.54 [mu]m.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Yi, Jae Hyung

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lionel C. Kimerling.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44315

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/44315