Band structure, electron distribution, direct-bandgap light emission, and optical gain of tensile strained, n-doped Ge at different temperatures were calculated. We found that the heating effects not only increase the electron occupancy rate in the Γ valley of Ge by thermal excitation, but also reduce the energy difference between its Γ valley and L valley. However,the light emission enhancement of Ge induced by the heating effects is weakened with increasing tensile strain and n-doping concentration. This phenomenon could be explained by that Ge is more similar to a direct bandgap material under tensile strain and n-doping. The heating effects also increase the optical gain of tensile strained, n-doped Ge at low temperature, but decrease it at high temperature. At high temperature, the hole and electron distributions become more flat, which prevent obtaining higher optical gain. Meanwhile, the heating effects also increase the free-carrier absorption. Therefore, to obtain a higher net maximum gain, the tensile strained, n-doped Ge films on Si should balance the gain increased by the heating effects and the optical loss induced by the free-carrier absorption.
Waveguide-integrated Ge/Si heterostructure avalanche photodetectors（APDs） were designed and fabricated using a CMOS-compatible process on 8-inch SOI substrate. The structure of the APD was designed as separate-absorption-chargemultiplication（SACM） using germanium and silicon as absorption region and multiplication region, respectively. The breakdown voltage（V_b） of such a device is 19 V at reverse bias and dark current appears to be 0.71 μA at 90% of the V_b. The device with a 10-μm length and 7-μm width of Ge layer shows a maximum 3-dB bandwidth of 17.8 GHz at the wavelength of 1550 nm. For the device with a 30-μm-length Ge region, gain-bandwidth product achieves 325 GHz.
Tensile strain, crystal quality, and surface morphology of 500 nm thick Ge films were improved after rapid thermal annealing at 900 ℃ for a short period （〈 20 s）. The films were grown on Si（001） substrates by ultra-high vacuum chemical vapor deposition. These improvements are attributed to relaxation and defect annihilation in the Ge films. However, after prolonged （〉 20 s） rapid thermal annealing, tensile strain and crystal quality degenerated. This phenomenon results from intensive Si-Ge mixing at high temperature.
Tensile-strained Ge/SiGe multiple quantum wells （MQWs） were grown on a Ge-on-Si virtual substrate using ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition on an n＋-Si （001） substrate. Direct-bandgap electroluminescence from the MQWs light emitting diode was observed at room temperature. The quantum confinement effect of the direct-bandgap transitions is in good agreement with the theoretical calculated results. The redshift mechanism of emission wavelength related to the thermal effect is discussed,
Optical gain characteristics of Ge1-xSnμx are simulated systematically.With an injection carrier concentration of 5×10^18/cm^3 at room temperature,the maximal optical gain of Ge0.922Sn0.078 alloy（with n-type doping concentration being 5×10^18/cm^3） reaches 500 cm^-1.Moreover,considering the free-carrier absorption effect,we find that there is an optimal injection carrier density to achieve a maximal net optical gain.A double heterostructure Ge0.554Si0.289Sn0.157/Ge0.922Sn0.078/Ge0.554Si0.289Sn0.157 short-wave infrared laser diode is designed to achieve a high injection efficiency and low threshold current density.The simulation values of the device threshold current density Jth are 6.47 kA/cm^2（temperature：200 K,and λ=2050 nm）,10.75 kA/cm^2（temperature：200 K,and λ=2000 nm）,and23.12 kA/cm^2（temperature：300 K,and λ=2100 nm）,respectively.The results indicate the possibility to obtain a Si-based short-wave infrared Ge1-xSnx laser.
Strain-compensated Ge/Si0.15Ge0.85 multiple quantum wells were grown on an Si0.1 Ge0.9 virtual substrate using ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition technology on an n＋-Si（001） substrate. Photoluminescence measurements were performed at room temperature, and the quantum confinement effect of the direct-bandgap transitions of a Ge quantum well was observed, which is in good agreement with the calculated results. The luminescence mechanism was discussed by recombination rate analysis and the temperature dependence of the luminescence spectrum.
Hu Wei-XuanCheng Bu-WenXue Chun-LaiZhang Guang-ZeSu Shao-JianZuo Yu-HuaWang Qi-Ming
