Epitaxially grown
quantum dot (QD) lasers are emerging as an economical
approach to obtain on-chip light sources. Thanks to the three-dimensional
confinement of carriers, QDs show greatly improved tolerance to defects
and promise other advantages such as low transparency current density,
high temperature operation, isolator-free operation, and enhanced
four-wave-mixing. These material properties distinguish them from
traditional III–V/Si quantum wells (QWs) and have spawned intense
interest to explore a full set of photonic integration using epitaxial
growth technology. We present here a summary of the most recent developments
of QD lasers grown on a CMOS-compatible (001) Si substrate, with a
focus on breakthroughs in long lifetime at elevated temperatures.
Threading dislocations are significantly reduced to the level of 1
× 106 cm–2 via a novel asymmetric
step-graded filter. Misfit dislocations are efficiently blocked from
the QD region through well-engineered trapping layers. A record-breaking
extrapolated lifetime of more than 200000 hours has been achieved
at 80 °C, forecasting that device reliability is now entering
the realm of commercial relevance and a monolithically integrated
light source is finally on the horizon.