Silicon Lasers and Photonic Integrated Circuits

This chapter discusses photonic integration on silicon from the material property, device as well as photonic circuit point of view. The progressive growth of silicon-based electronic integrated circuits (ICs) has followed Moore’s Law and has been driven by the roadmap of conventional electronic ICs. Silicon is arguably the primary host material platform for future photonic integrated circuits (PICs) as well, particularly for applications beyond conventional fiber-optical telecommunications. Until recently, the lack of a laser source on silicon has been seen as the key hurdle limiting the usefulness and complexity of silicon photonic integrated circuits. In this chapter, we review the numerous efforts including bandgap engineering, Raman scattering, monolithic heteroepitaxy and hybrid integration to realize efficient light emission, amplification and lasing on silicon. The state-of-the-art integration technologies for narrow linewidth lasers and high-speed modulators are also discussed.