0.5–1.3 µm III-nitride lasers and light emitting diodes epitaxially grown on (001) silicon

We have recently demonstrated electrically pumped 530nm (green) and 615nm (red) InGaN/GaN disk-in-nanowire (DNW) monolithic edge-emitting lasers on (001) silicon substrates. The nanowire heterostructures were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). These are the only lasers directly grown on (001) silicon without any substrate tilt or intermediate buffers. The lasers have demonstrated excellent steady state (J_th ~ 2kA/cm², T₀ ~ 240K, dg/dn ~ 3×10^-17cm²) and dynamic (small-signal modulation bandwidth ~ 4GHz) characteristics and a lifetime ~ 7000hrs. In this study we have extended the emission wavelength from the DNW to 1.46μm, the longest emission wavelength of a monolithic epitaxially grown heterostructure on silicon. Nanowire light-emitting diodes with peak emission at λ = 1.3μm are demonstrated for the first time. The epitaxy of the InGaN/GaN DNW and the long wavelength light sources are described.