Background technology
Silicon-based semiconductor is the foundation stone of modern microelectronic industry, but its development has approached the limit, especially aspect interconnection.Photoelectron technology is in the high speed development stage, present light emitting semiconductor device utilizes the compound-material preparation more, incompatible with the silicon microelectronic technique, therefore, photon technology and microelectric technique are gathered, and scarabaeidae of development silicon based opto-electronics and technical meaning are great.
The hybrid laser of indium phosphide and silicon is a kind of superintegrated technology that is suitable for that is considered at present have most application prospect.Usually take with SOI material and the III-V epitaxial material of waveguiding structure bonding by organic material, remove the InP substrate, and then carrying out the processing of laser, light wave is to be coupled into the SOI waveguide of lower floor by evanscent field, adopts electricity to be infused in the III-V material layer and completes pumping.This wherein the single longitudinal mode of bonding techniques and laser realize extremely important.Someone proposed Prague distributed feed-back (DFB) based on this mixed structure in recent years, Distributed reflection (DBR), and the lasers such as segmentation grating, realized that single wavelength swashs to penetrate, and makes it to be suitable for the transmission application of dense wavelength division multiplexing system; The researcher of University of Ghent has realized the micro-dish compact laser of 4 wavelength.These lasers also do not have commercialization, be mainly because technique on or more complicated, cost is also very high.Realize high-speed optical interconnection, single longitudinal mode laser is one of core devices.The single longitudinal mode laser that Prague distributed feed-back and Distributed reflection are commonly used, these lasers often need the more difficult or expensive manufacturing process such as holography or electron beam, sometimes also need secondary epitaxy, and monolithic multi-wavelength is integrated very difficult.
The invention discloses a kind of mixing silicon-III-V family annular cavity laser, be applicable to the Lights section of silicon-based photonics integration chip.This semiconductor laser comprises silica-based micro-structural part and III-V family semiconductor structure part, wherein silica-based part adopts silicon/silicon dioxide/silicon, it is so-called SOI (silicon on insulator) structure, this part is done and is circularized and the waveguide-coupled output form, and add monocycle or multicycle micro-structural slit along disc waveguide, realize transverse mode and longitudinal mode control.III-V family is that the InGaAlAs/InP architecture is bonded directly to SOI above, is gain material, is similarly loop configuration more than active area, and is complementary with the annular on SOI.Characteristics of the present invention are the implementation of silicon-based semiconductor laser single mode, not to adopt conventional distribution bragg feedback or catoptric arrangement, general simple loop configuration, but be carved into the cycle micro-structural on employing silicon based annular structure, realize, easily the silica-based micro-structural of upper cycle of large-scale processing and evanscent field waveguiding structure are realized light wave coupling and single longitudinal mode operation, can higher side mode suppression ratio and higher power be arranged more common annular chamber, but and the size of decrease a direction, meet integrated needs.Realize single longitudinal mode operation by new enhancing modeling mechanism on the silicon based annular chamber, and need not introduce the technology such as electron beam or holographic exposure, be conducive to reduce costs.At present by micro-structural and annular chamber double action, realize that the single longitudinal mode laser of silica-based mixing have not been reported.
Summary of the invention
The object of the invention is to, propose a kind of mixing silicon-III-V family Novel Microstructure annular chamber single-mode laser, this structure is at High Density Integration, single longitudinal mode operation, and efficient coupling output, the aspects such as high side mode suppression ratio high-power output are advantageous.The more important thing is and reduce complexity by processing steps such as saving common DFB distributed feedback grating making and III-V family material secondary extension in processes, adopt novel frequency-selecting mechanism, be beneficial to the integrated of high-quality light source.
In order to reach above purpose, the invention provides a kind of mixing silicon single mode annular cavity laser based on micro-structural silicon waveguide frequency-selecting, comprising:
One silicon substrate, this silicon substrate is single crystal silicon material;
One silicon dioxide layer, this silicon dioxide layer is produced on silicon substrate;
One silicon ring-type ducting layer, this silicon ring-type ducting layer is produced on silicon dioxide layer, has two parallel annular air raceway grooves in the plane of this silicon ring-type ducting layer, between these two ring-type air channel, is the ring-type ridged bar with the cycle micro-structural; A side at two annular air raceway grooves tangentially has two straight air channel, forms coupling output;
One bonding resilient coating, it is produced on the silicon ducting layer;
One N-type contact layer, it is produced on the bonding resilient coating;
One N-type electrode, it is produced on the centre on the N-type contact layer, and this N-type electrode partly is formed by connecting by annulus and square bonding wire, and the outer petticoat of this annulus inward flange and annular air raceway groove is tangent;
One ring-type quantum well active area, within this ring-type quantum well active area is produced on the annulus of N-type electrode, on the N-type contact layer, shape is identical with ring-type ridged bar;
One P type ring-type contact layer, it is produced on ring-type quantum well active area;
It is produced on one P type ring-type cap rock on P type ring-type contact layer;
One ring-type P type electrode, it is produced on ring-type P type cap rock.
From technique scheme, can find out, the present invention has following beneficial effect:
1, this mixing silicon single longitudinal mode laser based on evanscent field coupling and the frequency-selecting of micro-structural annular chamber provided by the invention, utilize evanscent field to realize the coupling output of light wave, reduces the reflected energy loss, is conducive to improve efficiency of laser.
2, this mixing silicon microstructure ring cavity single-longitudinal mode laser provided by the invention, realize frequency-selecting and single longitudinal mode output by annular chamber and cycle micro-structural, can realize larger side mode suppression ratio and high Output optical power, have more in the integrated middle large-scale application of photon and be worth.Advantage is that annular chamber and cycle micro-structural utilize common lithography corrosion process just can realize on silica-based, and needn't pass through the expensive complicated technology technology such as electron beam, holographic exposure, realizes.
Embodiment
Silicon substrate laser is the core devices in photon chip, in the interconnection of sheet glazing, light exchange, extremely important effect is arranged.
Refer to shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, the present invention proposes a kind of silica-based and have the integrated optical source of single mode operation characteristic, what adopt is silica-based and the mixed structure III-V semi-conducting material, in the situation that electricity injects, by evanscent field be coupled and silica-based on annular chamber and cycle micro-structural realize single module lasing, and output is coupled light in silica-based waveguides.Gain media adopts the Effects of GaAs/AlGaAs Quantum Wells structure, utilizes coplanar electrodes to realize that electricity injects, and III-V family cap rock and active Multiple Quantum Well are also to take the annular chamber pattern, and the above can have micro-structural.This laser is suitable for the integrated needs of high density photon photoelectron.
Refer to shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, the invention provides based on evanscent field coupling and cycle micro-structural frequency-selecting mixing silicon single-mode laser, comprise silica-based micro-structural ring-type waveguide part and III-V family semiconductor gain partly (top also have ring-type waveguiding structure), the integral vertical body structure as shown in Figure 1.Waveguiding structure on hierarchy schematic diagram and silicon ring-type ducting layer respectively as shown in Figures 2 and 3.
Overall structure comprise the two large divisions silica-based-SOI (siliconon insulator) part and III-V material part, specific as follows:
Refer to Fig. 2, a silicon substrate 10 is single crystal silicon material;
One silicon dioxide layer 11, this silicon dioxide layer 11 is positioned on silicon substrate 10;
One silicon ring-type ducting layer 12, this ring-type ducting layer 12 has cycle micro-structural 121 above it, and ring-type ducting layer 12 is positioned on silicon dioxide layer 11;
Wherein silicon substrate 10, and silica 11 and silicon ring-type ducting layer 12 are silica-base material, also referred to as the SOI material;
Silicon ring-type ducting layer 12 typical thickness are 0.2 to 1 micron, silicon substrate 10, and thickness is greater than 50 microns, and intermediate layer is silica 11, and thickness is 1 to 3 micron.Ridged bar 122 with the cycle micro-structural just is made on this SOI material (consulting Fig. 3), by conventional semiconductor lithography, wet method or dry etch process two of etchings in the silicon materials of the upper strata of the SOI annular channel 121 that is nested, the ridged bar that formation width W 2 is 1 to 3 micron, the annular chamber overall structure is racetrack, circle district radius R is the 100-200 micron, straight line portion L is long is the 100-500 micron, and girth is that hundreds of arrives the closed-loop shaped waveguide of several thousand microns.Light guide zone is silicon materials, below the limiting material intermediate layer silicon dioxide that is the SOI material, both sides are wider than the dark raceway groove of 300 nanometers by etching 2-3 micron and form horizontal restriction, the above connects together with III-V family material.In this silica-based evanscent field waveguide, accurate distribution the micro-structural in cycle, by dry etch process, forms.Number of cycles does not wait from tens to hundreds of, according to feedback, needs to determine.Cycle P is the 2-10 micron, and for the cycle micro-structural, groove width W1 is 1 to 1.2 micron.This micro-structural is selected the laser excitation wavelength at 1.5 micron wavebands, and can be designed to 1.3 micron wavebands.Can realize the selection of wavelength by adjustment cycle and micro-structural slot width.
A side at two annular air raceway grooves 121 tangentially has two straight air channel 123, forms coupling output.
One bonding resilient coating and N-type contact layer 13, be positioned on ring-type silicon ducting layer 12, and shape is identical, and width can be different; Wherein the bonding resilient coating is under the N-type contact layer, and the N-type contact layer forms electrode by horizontal injection mode;
One ring-type Multiple Quantum Well active area 14 is positioned on bonding resilient coating and N-type contact layer 13, forms ring-type ridged strip;
One ring-type P type contact layer and P type cap rock 15, it is positioned on ring-type Multiple Quantum Well active area 14, remains ring-type ridged strip, wherein ring-type P type contact layer is upper, ring-type P type cap rock under.Coated electrode above ring-type P type contact layer.
The described mixing silicon single mode annular cavity laser based on micro-structural silicon waveguide frequency-selecting, wherein bonding resilient coating and N-type contact layer 13, ring-type Multiple Quantum Well active area 14, ring-type P type contact layer and ring-type P type cap rock 15, be III-V family material.
The described mixing silicon single mode annular cavity laser based on micro-structural silicon waveguide frequency-selecting; be nested with a ring-type silicon strip of formation by making two concentric annular air channel planes on ring-type silicon ducting layer 12; this ring-type silicon strip top is bonding resilient coating and N-type contact layer 13; below is silicon dioxide layer 11; other parts are surrounded by air; this ring-type silicon strip thickness is ring-type silicon ducting layer 12 thickness, and width is the 1-5 micron, with top III-V family material formation evanescent field coupled waveguide.Along this silicon strip distribution cycle micro-structural 121, the cycle is at the 2-10 micron.
The described mixing silicon single mode annular cavity laser based on micro-structural silicon waveguide frequency-selecting, bonding resilient coating and have coated electrode on horizontal injecting electrode, ring-type P type contact layer and ring-type P type cap rock 15 to be Ti/Au material or other metallic films above N-type contact layer 13.
The described mixing silicon single mode annular cavity laser based on micro-structural silicon waveguide frequency-selecting; ring-type Multiple Quantum Well active area 14, the quantum well number is 3-9, emission wavelength is greater than 1.1 microns; for InGaAsP or indium gallium aluminum arsenide Multiple Quantum Well system, with indium phosphorus, form Lattice Matching or introduce certain strain.
The described mixing silicon single mode annular cavity laser based on micro-structural silicon waveguide frequency-selecting.The cycle micro-structural 121 distributed in ring-type silicon waveguide 12, can have multiple cycle form cascade, and microstructure unit can be " one " font, " ten " font or circular hole etc.
As shown in Fig. 2 top view, periodic structure can be done in the silicon waveguide, also can do on III-V family limiting layer.
III-V family semi-conducting material is the plural layers that utilize the depositing operation growth, be followed successively by from top to bottom P type top electrode contact layer/semi-conducting material cap rock/indium gallium aluminum arsenide multiple quantum well layer/N-type bottom electrode contact layer/superlattice layer/bonded layer, the following lower limit layer structure adopted of multiquantum well region comprises that contact layer thickness is 110 nanometer left and right, the InGaAlAs/InP superlattice in two cycles are respectively 7.5 nanometers, bonded layer is InP, and thickness is 10 nanometers. this material sticks together by Direct Bonding by the band figure top layer silicon of bonded layer and SOI.After removing the III-V substrate, available common photoetching and lithographic technique, the annulus that on formation and silicon, annular is complementary on the III-V material.Generally speaking III-V family disc waveguide width is 10 microns left and right.The SOI waveguide of whole III-V family's lower limit layer structure and bonding forms the evanescent field coupling.This material system can be realized higher gain.
Mix silica-based micro-structural ring cavity single-longitudinal mode laser in technologic embodiment as shown in Figure 2.Be included on the SOI material and utilize common photolithographicallpatterned to prepare the waveguide of racetrack micro-structural; Customization III-V family Multiple Quantum Well active area epitaxial wafer; SOI and III-V family epitaxial material low temperature figure bonding; Remove the InP of III-V family substrate; Form annular chamber more than the N contact layer of III-V family epitaxial loayer, be complementary with the annular chamber on SOI; Evaporation insulating barrier and Ti/Au metal level and formation coplanar electrodes, also comprise cleavage and encapsulation etc.Whole process, do not need the technology such as electron beam, holographic exposure and secondary epitaxy.And electrode fabrication is simple, do not need special N-type electrode fabrication.
The analysis showed that, as shown in Figure 4, upper strata is III-V family material sections, and centre is Si, and lower floor is SiO
2, when middle Si duct width changes, can adjust the distribution of light field at upper strata gain region and intermediate layer conducting region, and the Si duct width is more than 1 micron, without expensive process such as electron beams as seen.So just can adjust coupling amount and gain by adjusting silica-based evanescent field duct width, realize the output of silicon Waveguide.
For the frequency-selecting of micro-structural annular chamber, the analysis showed that Fig. 5, in the micro-structural cycle on annular chamber, the degree of depth etc. are all influential to model selection, when the cycle, at 9.5 microns, make to select the 1550nm wavelength, and annular chamber is of a size of 200 microns of radiuses, and straight line portion length is 700 microns.Side mode suppression ratio reaches the 40dB left and right.Preliminary identification can form single mode, benefit be the micro-structural yardstick in micron dimension, common photoetching just can realize.
In the present invention, by the adjustment ring girth, the micro-structural cycle can be realized the adjusting of wavelength.Can be controlled pattern.
Above-described specific embodiment; purpose of the present invention, technical scheme and beneficial effect are further described; institute is understood that; the foregoing is only specific embodiments of the invention; be not limited to the present invention; within the spirit and principles in the present invention all, any modification of making, be equal to replacement, improvement etc., within all should being included in protection scope of the present invention.