O-Band Monolithic Quantum Dot Semiconductor Optical Amplifier on COMS-Compatible Silicon

博士候选人的愿景是通过外延生长方法在硅衬底上开发世界上第一个半导体光放大器（SOA）。EPSRC DTP奖学金旨在共同研究量子点（QD）增益区技术，先进外延和高端纳米制造技术，以开发在互补金属氧化物半导体（CMOS）兼容的轴上硅（001）衬底上生长的InAs QD soa单片硅光子学。与传统的基于原生衬底的soa或使用倒装芯片键合或晶圆键合的基于si的III-V soa相比，所提出的方法具有根本的不同，因为博士候选人的目标是直接在cmos兼容硅（001）上开发高性能III-V soa，从而开辟了实现高产量的可能性。利用CMOS行业开发的成熟制造工具和工艺，实现低成本和大规模的硅基光子集成电路（PICs）。拟议的研究涉及一项为期36个月的实验研究，其中EPSRC DTP博士生将接受培训，承担建模，大部分设备制造和表征以及分析工作。该主题属于基于硅的信息和通信技术（ICT）研究，这是现代数据革命的核心，解决了EPSRC 2017 - 2020年交叉ICT优先事项，并适合交叉ICT领域，跨学科和共同创造。这项建议的重要性不应被低估；如果本提案中讨论的研究挑战/目标没有实现，硅基PICs将无法达到预期的全部潜力。

The PhD candidate's vision is to develop the world's first semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) on silicon substrates by epitaxial growth methods. This EPSRC DTP studentship award aims to jointly investigate quantum dot (QD) gain region technology, advanced epitaxy and high-end nano-fabrication techniques to develop InAs QD SOAs monolithically grown on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible on-axis silicon (001) substrates for silicon photonics. In contrast to conventional native substrates based SOAs or Si-based III-V SOAs using either flip-chip bonding or wafer bonding, the proposed method is fundamentally different, since the PhD candidate aims to develop high-performance III-V SOAs directly on CMOS-compatible silicon (001), opening up the possibility to achieve high-yield, low-cost and large-scale silicon-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs) by leveraging the mature fabrication tools and processes developed by the CMOS industry.The proposed study concerns a 36-month experimental study, where the EPSRC DTP PhD student be trained to undertake modelling, most of the device fabrication and characterisation, and analysis work. The topic is within the silicon-based Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Research, which is at the heart of the modern data revolution and addresses the EPSRC Cross-ICT Priorities 2017 - 2020 and fits the Cross-ICT areas, Cross-Disciplinary and Co-Creation. The significance of this proposal should not be underestimated; if the research challenges/objectives discussed in this proposal are not fulfilled, silicon-based PICs will not reach its full potential that is predicted.