1305 nm Few‐Layer MoTe₂‐on‐Silicon Laser‐Like Emission

Abstract

The missing piece in the jigsaw of silicon photonics is a light source that can be easily incorporated into the standard silicon fabrication process. Here, silicon laser‐like emission is reported that employs few‐layer semiconducting transition metal dichalogenides of molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe2) as a gain material in a silicon photonic crystal L3 nanocavity. An optically pumped MoTe2‐on‐silicon laser‐like emission at 1305 nm, i.e. in the center of the “O‐band” of optical communications, is demonstrated at room temperature and with a threshold power density of 1.5 kW/cm2. The surprising insight is that, contrary to common understanding, a monolayer MoTe2 is not required to achieve higher efficiency laser‐like operation. Instead, few‐layer MoTe2 offers a higher overlap between the two dimensional (2D) gain material and the optical mode for sufficient gain. The ability to use few‐layer material opens new opportunities for deploying manufacturing methods such as chemical vapor deposition and thereby brings 2D‐on‐silicon devices a step closer to becoming a scalable technology.

2D Material Microcavity Light Emitters: To Lase or Not to Lase?

“…The authors wish to particularly highlight Prof. Ferrari's related paper . Special thanks are also due to Prof. J. Li (Sun Yat‐sen University, Guangzhou, China) whose fruitful collaboration brought the need to consider the threshold condition in TMD microcavity devices in more detail to the attention …”

Exploring Time‐Resolved Multiphysics of Active Plasmonic Systems with Experiment‐Based Gain Models

“…Since the MBL approach has not been implemented in our numerical models as of yet we are planning to include the quantum fluctuations in future efforts specifically dealing with in‐depth analysis of numerical metrics pertinent to enhanced spontaneous emission modeling. Future efforts may also include analysis of lasing dynamics in emerging 2D materials …”

Laterally confined photonic crystal surface emitting laser incorporating monolayer tungsten disulfide

“…As a direct band semiconductor, monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) draws tremendous research interests and numerous monolayer or few layer TMDC based lasers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] and light-emitting diodes [9][10][11][12][13] have emerged recently. With an ultimately thin active region, TMDC lasers have the potential of realizing ultra low lasing threshold and power consumption.…”

“…The first demonstrations of TMDC lasers are based on microdisk cavities [1,3] and photonic crystal (PhC) defect mode microcavites [2]. The emission wavelength is then extended to near infrared by introducing molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe 2 ) as the gain medium [4,6]. While offering a low threshold and high Purcell factor, the emissions from microcavities typically have a large divergence angle, which limits their application in practical devices due to requirement of high numerical aperture (NA) lenses for collecting the emission.…”

“…While offering a low threshold and high Purcell factor, the emissions from microcavities typically have a large divergence angle, which limits their application in practical devices due to requirement of high numerical aperture (NA) lenses for collecting the emission. On the other hand, surface emitting devices have been implemented by optimizing the far field pattern of the PhC microcavity [6] and introducing distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) [5] or plasmonic grating [7] based cavities.…”