Toward High Performance Integrated Semiconductor Micro and Nano Lasers Enabled by Transparent Conducting Materials: from Thick Structure to Thin Film

Integrated semiconductor lasers working at the wavelength around 1.3 microm and 1.55 microm are of great interest for the research of photonic integrated circuit (PIC) since they are the crucial components for optical communications and many other applications. To satisfy the requirement of the next generation optical communication and computing systems, integrated semiconductor lasers are expected to have high device performance like very low lasing threshold, high output powers, high speed and possibility of being integrated with electronics. This dissertation focuses on the design and realization of InP based high performance electrically pumped integrated semiconductor lasers.;In the dissertation, we first design the tall structure based electrically pumped integrated micro-lasers. Those lasers are capable of giving >10 mW output power with a moderate low threshold current density (0.5--5 kA/cm 2). Besides, a new enhanced radiation loss based coupler design is demonstrated to realize single directional output for curvilinear cavities.;Second, the thin film structure based integrated semiconductor laser designs are proposed. Both structures use the side conduction geometry to enable the electrical injection into the thin film laser cavity. The performance enhancement of the thin film structure based lasers is analyzed compared to the tall structure.;Third, we investigate the TCO materials. CdO deposited by PLD and In 2O3 deposited by IAD are studied from aspects of their physical, optical and electrical properties. Those materials can give a wide range of tunability in their conductivity (1--5000 S/cm) and optical transparency (loss 200--5000 cm-1), which is of great interest in realizing novel nanophotonic devices. In addition, the electrical contact properties of those materials to InP are also studied. Experiment result shows that both CdO and In2O3 can achieve good ohmic contact to n-InP with contact resistance as low as 10-6O·cm 2.;At last, we investigate some novel laser design based on the TCO materials and the thin film structure. The InP based coplanar electrode FP laser using In2O3 as the n-type cladding electrode is demonstrated. The design of the electrically pumped photonic crystal laser is also discussed. Initial fabrication result is given, showing potential of realizing those nano-lasers.