A comparative study of selective dry and wet etching methods for germanium-tin (Ge 1−x Sn x ) alloys (3.5% < x < 7.7%) and germanium (Ge) is carried out. Both etching methods are optimized from the perspectives of selectivity and morphology, and then compared. A special behavior of the selective dry etching process is discovered and explained, whereby the selectivity has a dramatic increase to as high as 336 when the Sn concentration is above 6%. Different morphologies of suspended microstructures fabricated by different etching methods are investigated. Comparative study shows that the selective dry etching is a better choice for high Sn concentration GeSn (above 7%) against Ge to have better morphology, selectivity and verticality. While for low Sn concentration GeSn (below 6%), wet etching is a better way to fabricate a suspended GeSn microstructure on Ge. This work provides a comparative understanding of both methods of selective etching for GeSn. This comparative understanding is expected to be applied in the processing of next generation electronic and photonic devices.

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Quantum dot (QD) laser as a light source for silicon optical integration has attracted great research attention because of the strategic vision of optical interconnection. In this paper, the communication band InAs QD ridge waveguide lasers were fabricated on GaAs-on-insulator (GaAsOI) substrate by combining ion-slicing technique and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth. On the foundation of optimizing surface treatment processes, the InAs/In0.13Ga0.87As/GaAs dot-in-well (DWELL) lasers monolithically grown on a GaAsOI substrate were realized under pulsed operation at 20 °C. The static device measurements reveal comparable performance in terms of threshold current density, slope efficiency and output power between the QD lasers on GaAsOI and GaAs substrates. This work shows great potential to fabricate highly integrated light source on Si for photonic integrated circuits.

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