Room-Temperature Lasing Action in GaN Quantum Wells in the Infrared 1.5 μm Region

Large-scale optoelectronics integration is strongly limited by the lack of efficient light sources, which could be integrated with the silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Persistent efforts continue to achieve efficient light emission from silicon in extending the silicon technology into fully integrated optoelectronic circuits. Here, we report the realization of room-temperature stimulated emission in the technologically crucial 1.5 μm wavelength range from Er-doped GaN multiple-quantum wells on silicon and sapphire. Employing the well-acknowledged variable stripe technique, we have demonstrated an optical gain up to 170 cm^–1 in the multiple-quantum well structures. The observation of the stimulated emission is accompanied by the characteristic threshold behavior of emission intensity as a function of pump fluence, spectral line width narrowing, and excitation length. The demonstration of room-temperature lasing at the minimum loss window of optical fibers and in the eye-safe wavelength region of 1.5 μm are highly sought after for use in many applications including defense, industrial processing, communication, medicine, spectroscopy, and imaging. As the synthesis of Er-doped GaN epitaxial layers on silicon and sapphire has been successfully demonstrated, the results laid the foundation for achieving hybrid GaN-Si lasers, providing a new pathway toward full photonic integration for silicon optoelectronics.