1.54 micron optical amplifiers and emitters based upon erbium doped III-nitrides grown on silicon

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Objective: The objective of this project is to develop new types of electrically pumped optical emitters and amplifiers on silicon based upon nitride-on-Si photonic materials system. Intellectual Merit: Research in silicon photonics has received much attention in recent years because of its potential to utilize well developed silicon processing technology. The foremost challenge in silicon photonics so far is the difficulty of making electrically pumped light sources and amplifiers. We propose to develop new types of optical emitters and amplifiers on silicon. Our approach is to exploit erbium (Er) doping in III-nitride semiconductors and is based on our successful synthesizing by MOCVD of Er-doped III-nitride device structures on silicon that exhibit predominantly the desired optical emission for optical communication at 1.5 microns. The technical aims are to further develop the MOCVD growth technology for the in-situ Er incorporation into III-nitride device structures grown on silicon and device fabrication technology for the realization of Er-doped nitride optical amplifiers and emitters active at 1.5 microns. Broader Impacts: The fundamental understanding of Er-doped III-nitride materials and the growth of such materials on large area Si substrates have the potential to open up unprecedented applications because such nitride-on-Si photonic materials system would be compatible with the standard CMOS processes. Graduate students will be actively involved in a research program that is highly interdisciplinary in nature; covering from the state-of-the-art epitaxial growth of novel photonic materials/structures, to advanced materials characterization, and to nano-scale photonic/optoelectronic device fabrication.