Integration of an Electrically Driven InGaAsP Based Microdisk Laser with a Silicon based Passive Photonic Circuit

Abstract

Electrically driven InGaAsP based microdisk lasers are bonded on a 200 mm SOI Wafer with submicron Silicon waveguides. Experimental results at room temperature of electrically pumped lasers coupled to a Si waveguide are exposed. IntroductionIn order to develop new optical links for future optical interconnects, a key issue is to fabricate an efficient optical microlaser connected with an optical waveguide that can be integrated on top of a silicon integrated circuit. Circuitscale predictive simulation showed that such optical links should exhibit high efficiency, low power consumption and low footprint [1] An approach based on hybridation of AlGaInAs on Silicon, and evanescent coupling was recently proposed, and promising results were obtained [2]. However, this approach does not enable drastic reduction of the laser source dimension and threshold. A few years ago, we proposed an original approach that consists in heterogeneous integration of high optical confinement InP-based photonic structures onto silicon [3] Coupling such ultracompact optical source with high index contrast passive waveguide could enable the implementation of efficient optical links on top of a silicon circuit.In order to implement such optical links, we selected photonic devices that use relatively mature concepts and that in the same time enable a high compactness.: InP-based microdisk lasers, and optical waveguides with sub-micron dimensions, patterned in an Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) wafer. Microdisk lasers have been extensively studied in the past decade, both under optical and electrical pumping. In case of electrical injection, most of the structures are pedestal disks realized in a thick membrane [4]. In this communication, we focus on the design, fabrication and preliminary test of an heterogeneous system composed of an electrically pumped laser that uses a thin InP heterostructure and passive photonic circuit based on a nanostructured 200 mm SOI wafer.