Search Results

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Item
    Strain Engineered Electrically Pumped SiGeSn Microring Lasers on Si
    (Washington, DC : ACS, 2022) Marzban, Bahareh; Seidel, Lukas; Liu, Teren; Wu, Kui; Kiyek, Vivien; Zoellner, Marvin Hartwig; Ikonic, Zoran; Schulze, Joerg; Grützmacher, Detlev; Capellini, Giovanni; Oehme, Michael; Witzens, Jeremy; Buca, Dan
    SiGeSn holds great promise for enabling fully group-IV integrated photonics operating at wavelengths extending in the mid-infrared range. Here, we demonstrate an electrically pumped GeSn microring laser based on SiGeSn/GeSn heterostructures. The ring shape allows for enhanced strain relaxation, leading to enhanced optical properties, and better guiding of the carriers into the optically active region. We have engineered a partial undercut of the ring to further promote strain relaxation while maintaining adequate heat sinking. Lasing is measured up to 90 K, with a 75 K T0. Scaling of the threshold current density as the inverse of the outer circumference is linked to optical losses at the etched surface, limiting device performance. Modeling is consistent with experiments across the range of explored inner and outer radii. These results will guide additional device optimization, aiming at improving electrical injection and using stressors to increase the bandgap directness of the active material.
  • Item
    Electron Population Dynamics in Optically Pumped Asymmetric Coupled Ge/SiGe Quantum Wells: Experiment and Models
    (Basel : MDPI, 2020) Ciano, Chiara; Virgilio, Michele; Bagolini, Luigi; Baldassarre, Leonetta; Rossetti, Andrea; Pashkin, Alexej; Helm, Manfred; Montanari, Michele; Persichetti, Luca; Di Gaspare, Luciana; Capellini, Giovanni; Paul, Douglas J.; Scalari, Giacomo; Faist, Jèrome; De Seta, Monica; Ortolani, Michele
    n-type doped Ge quantum wells with SiGe barriers represent a promising heterostructure system for the development of radiation emitters in the terahertz range such as electrically pumped quantum cascade lasers and optically pumped quantum fountain lasers. The nonpolar lattice of Ge and SiGe provides electron-phonon scattering rates that are one order of magnitude lower than polar GaAs. We have developed a self-consistent numerical energy-balance model based on a rate equation approach which includes inelastic and elastic inter-and intra-subband scattering events and takes into account a realistic two-dimensional electron gas distribution in all the subband states of the Ge/SiGe quantum wells by considering subband-dependent electronic temperatures and chemical potentials. This full-subband model is compared here to the standard discrete-energy-level model, in which the material parameters are limited to few input values (scattering rates and radiative cross sections). To provide an experimental case study, we have epitaxially grown samples consisting of two asymmetric coupled quantum wells forming a three-level system, which we optically pump with a free electron laser. The benchmark quantity selected for model testing purposes is the saturation intensity at the 1!3 intersubband transition. The numerical quantum model prediction is in reasonable agreement with the experiments and therefore outperforms the discrete-energy-level analytical model, of which the prediction of the saturation intensity is off by a factor 3. © 2019 by the authors.
  • Item
    Subnanometer Control of the Heteroepitaxial Growth of Multimicrometer-Thick Ge /(Si, Ge) Quantum Cascade Structures
    (College Park, Md. [u.a.] : American Physical Society, 2023) Talamas Simola, Enrico; Montanari, Michele; Corley-Wiciak, Cedric; Di Gaspare, Luciana; Persichetti, Luca; Zöllner, Marvin H.; Schubert, Markus A.; Venanzi, Tommaso; Trouche, Marina Cagnon; Ortolani, Michele; Mattioli, Francesco; Sfuncia, Gianfranco; Nicotra, Giuseppe; Capellini, Giovanni; Virgilio, Michele; De Seta, Monica
    The fabrication of complex low-dimensional quantum devices requires the control of the heteroepitaxial growth at the subnanometer scale. This is particularly challenging when the total thickness of stacked layers of device-active material becomes extremely large and exceeds the multi-μm limit, as in the case of quantum cascade structures. Here, we use the ultrahigh-vacuum chemical vapor deposition technique for the growth of multi-μm-thick stacks of high Ge content strain-balanced Ge/SiGe tunneling heterostructures on Si substrates, designed to serve as the active material in a THz quantum cascade laser. By combining thorough structural investigation with THz spectroscopy absorption experiments and numerical simulations we show that the optimized deposition process can produce state-of-the-art threading dislocation density, ultrasharp interfaces, control of dopant atom position at the nanoscale, and reproducibility within 1% of the layer thickness and composition within the whole multilayer. We show that by using ultrahigh-vacuum chemical vapor deposition one achieves simultaneously a control of the epitaxy down to the sub-nm scale typical of the molecular beam epitaxy, and the high growth rate and technological relevance of chemical vapor deposition. Thus, this technique is a key enabler for the deposition of integrated THz devices and other complex quantum structures based on the Ge/SiGe material system.
  • Item
    Ge(Sn) nano-island/Si heterostructure photodetectors with plasmonic antennas
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2020) Schlykow, Viktoria; Manganelli, Costanza Lucia; Römer, Friedhard; Clausen, Caterina; Augel, Lion; Schulze, Jörg; Katzer, Jens; Schubert, Michael Andreas; Witzigmann, Bernd; Schroeder, Thomas; Capellini, Giovanni; Fischer, Inga Anita
    We report on photodetection in deep subwavelength Ge(Sn) nano-islands on Si nano-pillar substrates, in which self-aligned nano-antennas in the Al contact metal are used to enhance light absorption by means of local surface plasmon resonances. The impact of parameters such as substrate doping and device geometry on the measured responsivities are investigated and our experimental results are supported by simulations of the three-dimensional distribution of the electromagnetic fields. Comparatively high optical responsivities of about 0.1 A W-1 are observed as a consequence of the excitation of localized surface plasmons, making our nano-island photodetectors interesting for applications in which size reduction is essential. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.
  • Item
    CMOS-Compatible Bias-Tunable Dual-Band Detector Based on GeSn/Ge/Si Coupled Photodiodes
    (Washington, DC : ACS Publications, 2021) Talamas Simola, Enrico; Kiyek, Vivien; Ballabio, Andrea; Schlykow, Viktoria; Frigerio, Jacopo; Zucchetti, Carlo; De Iacovo, Andrea; Colace, Lorenzo; Yamamoto, Yuji; Capellini, Giovanni; Grützmacher, Detlev; Buca, Dan; Isella, Giovanni
    Infrared (IR) multispectral detection is attracting increasing interest with the rising demand for high spectral sensitivity, room temperature operation, CMOS-compatible devices. Here, we present a two-terminal dual-band detector, which provides a bias-switchable spectral response in two distinct IR bands. The device is obtained from a vertical GeSn/Ge/Si stack, forming a double junction n-i-p-i-n structure, epitaxially grown on a Si wafer. The photoresponse can be switched by inverting the bias polarity between the near and the short-wave IR bands, with specific detectivities of 1.9 × 1010 and 4.0 × 109 cm·(Hz)1/2/W, respectively. The possibility of detecting two spectral bands with the same pixel opens up interesting applications in the field of IR imaging and material recognition, as shown in a solvent detection test. The continuous voltage tuning, combined with the nonlinear photoresponse of the detector, enables a novel approach to spectral analysis, demonstrated by identifying the wavelength of a monochromatic beam. © 2021 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.
  • Item
    Quantitative protein sensing with germanium THz-antennas manufactured using CMOS processes
    (Washington, DC : Soc., 2022) Hardt, Elena; Chavarin, Carlos Alvarado; Gruessing, Soenke; Flesch, Julia; Skibitzki, Oliver; Spirito, Davide; Vita, Gian Marco; Simone, Giovanna De; Masi, Alessandra di; You, Changjiang; Witzigmann, Bernd; Piehler, Jacob; Capellini, Giovanni
    The development of a CMOS manufactured THz sensing platform could enable the integration of state-of-the-art sensing principles with the mixed signal electronics ecosystem in small footprint, low-cost devices. To this aim, in this work we demonstrate a label-free protein sensing platform using highly doped germanium plasmonic antennas realized on Si and SOI substrates and operating in the THz range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The antenna response to different concentrations of BSA shows in both cases a linear response with saturation above 20 mg/mL. Ge antennas on SOI substrates feature a two-fold sensitivity as compared to conventional Si substrates, reaching a value of 6 GHz/(mg/mL), which is four-fold what reported using metal-based metamaterials. We believe that this result could pave the way to a low-cost lab-on-a-chip biosensing platform.