《A review of recent progress in lasers on silicon》.pdf

Optics Laser Technology 46 (2013) 103–110 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Optics Laser Technology journal homepage: /locate/optlastec Review A review of recent progress in lasers on silicon Zhou Fang a,b, Qiu Yu Chen a, Ce Zhou Zhao a,n a Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, No. 111 Ren’ai Road, 215123 Suzhou, China b Nano Research Group, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, Southampton, United Kingdom a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: The absence of integrated sources of light has always been regarded as a serious obstacle to silicon Received 27 February 2012 photonics. The inherent indirect band structure makes silicon a poor emitting material, while epitaxial Received in revised form lasers on Si instead face challenges from the large power loss at the interface. Overcoming these 20 April 2012 problems is the one indispensable step before the realization of efficient photonic chips, and this Accepted 17 May 2012 perspective gives huge impetus to the development on light sources on silicon. This paper provides a Available online 30 July 2012 review of recent progress made in 2011 on lasers on silicon. Keywords: