Ge Quantum Well Modulators on Si

D. A. B. Miller, R. K. Schaevitz, J. E. Roth, Shen Ren, and Onur Fidaner

Ginzton Laboratory, 450 Via Palou, Stanford CA 94305-4088, USA

We discuss the physics and device structures of optical modulators using germanium quantum wells grown on silicon substrates. These exploit the recently discovered strong electroabsorption mechanism in such wells, and promise high performance optical modulators on silicon.

Introduction Optics has become the dominant means of long-distance communications, and it is being used increasingly for shorter distances. Given the increasing difficulty of sending information electrically at ever higher density even within information processing and switching machines, optics, with its many potential physical advantages [1], has become progressively more interesting for such interconnections also, and the device and integration criteria and the practical benefits are now relatively well understood [2].

For use at short distances inside machines in particular, the requirements on the devices that would turn electrical information into optical signals are especially challenging. Either optical modulators or optical sources on chip would at least in principle be attractive options. Optical modulators have the advantages that more of the power dissipation is pushed off-chip and they may remain efficient at very low operating energies. Some modulators, such as quantum well electroabsorption devices, do not require precise tuning or high-quality cavities, and have no speed limitations at electronic speeds. Only devices made in III-V materials have historically had all of these features, however; the effects in Group IV materials have been too weak. The use of Group IV’s is attractive because they are much more likely to be easily compatible with silicon CMOS manufacture.

Recently, we were able to demonstrate the most efficient optical modulator

mechanism, the quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) [3], in Ge/SiGe quantum well structures grown on silicon [4,5]. The QCSE is a shift in the optical transitions in quantum well structures caused by electric fields perpendicular to the layers. This effect is seen routinely at room temperature in thin quantum well layers, and is used extensively for optical modulators for telecommunications. Previously this effect had been seen only in direct gap materials, usually III-V’s. Here we were able successfully to exploit this effect at the direct gap of Ge. This opens up the possibility of high-performance optical modulators on silicon, possibly compatible with CMOS fabrication, having performance as good as the widely used III-V devices, and hence with performance likely good enough for dense optical interconnects all the way to silicon chips. This QCSE in Ge quantum wells is also seen near to the telecommunications band at 1.5 microns wavelength, making it attractive also for optical fiber system applications.

ECS Transactions, 16 (10) 851-856 (2008)10.1149/1.2986844 © The Electrochemical Society

851

Band structure and optical absorption in germanium As is well known, both silicon and germanium are indirect bandgap materials. The

maxima in the valence band do not lie at the same momentum as the minima in the conduction band. Optical transitions between the highest part of the valence band and the lowest part of the conduction band can only take place with the collaboration of a phonon, and are therefore weak processes. As a result, such indirect gap materials cannot be used in this form for efficient optical emitters, at least in the way such emitters work in direct gap III-V materials.

The relevant parts of the band structure here are sketched in Fig. 1. Although Ge has

the lowest energy part of its conduction band at the L point at the edge of the Brillouin zone, it also has a direct gap, at slightly higher energy, a the center of the Brillouin zone. Though electrons will not gather in this Γ valley for optical emission, it is still possible to absorb strongly from the top of the valence band into this conduction band minimum, by direct optical absorption (i.e., without the participation of phonons). As a result, although there is a weak absorption tail at lower photon energies associated with the indirect absorption from the top of the valence band to the L point states, there is a strong direct optical absorption possible for slightly higher photon energies, very similar to that seen in III-V direct gap materials.

4.0 eV (~300 nm)

L3

L1

Γ2’

∆

k [100] [111]

LH

HH

(a) (b)

LH

HH

Γ7-

L 0.8 eV(~1550 nm)

(c)

LH

HH

Γ2’

L > 0.8 eV (> 1550 nm)

[100] [111]

[100] [111] k

k

(d)

HH

LH

Γ2’

L

[100] [111] k

Figure 1. Cartoon depiction of the band structures of (a) Ge, (b) Si, (c) compressive strained Ge and (d) tensile strained Ge-rich Si-Ge [5,6]. [100] – “z” cube edge direction, [111] – cubic space diagonal direction, Γ − “zone-center” (k=0) point, L – “zone-edge” point in [111] direction, ∆ – point in [100] direction with minimum energy in Si conduction band, LH – “light hole” valence band, HH – “heavy hole” valence band, L1, L3, Γ2′ – specific Si conduction bands.

ECS Transactions, 16 (10) 851-856 (2008)

852

Germanium quantum wells on silicon If we can succeed in growing thin Ge layers (e.g., ~ 10 – 20 nm) between SiGe barriers, we can expect a quantum well potential structure as sketched in Fig. 2.

Si1-yGeybuffer

Gewell

Ev,hh

Ev,lh

h+

e-

Si1-xGexbarrier

∆Ev,lh∆Ev,hh

∆Ec,Γ

Absorption at zone center

Ec,Γ

Si1-xGexbarrier

Ec,L∆Ec, L

Figure 2. Sketch of the band structure in real space (not to scale) of a Ge/SiGe quantum well structure, with compressive strain in the well and tensile strain in the barrier, on a lattice-relaxed SiGe buffer [5].

Though there is a lower conduction band quantum well at the L valley, there is a strongly confined conduction band potential well at the Γ point, and the heavy hole (hh) band also sees a strong confining potential. Hence we can expect to see quantum well effects in absorption on the direct transitions (as indicated by the h+ – e- line in Fig. 2), effects that will be quite similar to those we see routinely in direct gap III-V semiconductors. For modulator devices, the weaker indirect absorption at lower photon energies is not a major problem.

~1 µm relaxed B-doped Si0.1Ge0.9 buffer

Silicon substrate

10 Ge/SiGe MQWs

Al/Ti p-contact

n-contact

(a)

200nm undoped Si0.1Ge0.9

200nm undoped Si0.1Ge0.9

400nm As-doped Si0.1Ge0.9 cap

strainforce

(b)

Al/Ti

~1 µm relaxed B-doped Si0.1Ge0.9 buffer

Silicon substrate

10 Ge/SiGe MQWs

Al/Ti p-contact

n-contact

(a)

200nm undoped Si0.1Ge0.9

200nm undoped Si0.1Ge0.9

400nm As-doped Si0.1Ge0.9 cap

strainforce

(b)

Al/Ti

Figure 3. (a) Mesa structure of p-i-n diode with multiple QWs in the intrinsic region and (b) corresponding strain diagram [4-6].

ECS Transactions, 16 (10) 851-856 (2008)

853

Electroabsorption in germanium quantum wells on silicon

We have succeeded in growing such Ge quantum wells, with SiGe barriers, on silicon substrates, and in building them into diode structures that also enable us to apply fields perpendicular to the quantum well layers. The basic structures to demonstrate these effects are p-i-n diodes, grown on silicon substrates, as shown in Fig. 3. A SiGe buffer is first grown on the substrate, and then the active reverse-biased diode region is grown on top of this buffer. The SiGe used here has relatively low Si concentration (e.g., 10 – 15%). The buffers are grown in two stages, each consisting of a relatively low temperature growth of a few tenths of a micron followed by a brief high-temperature anneal. The active quantum well layers inside the intrinsic (i) region of the diode consist of Ge quantum well layers of thickness ~ 10 – 20 nm depending on the specific device design, interspersed with SiGe barrier layers with concentrations and thicknesses chosen to give a strain-balanced layer whose average lattice constant matches that of the SiGe buffers.

Figure 4. Absorption spectra as a function of applied voltage for a sample with 17.8 nm thick Ge quantum wells [6].

A typical set of optical absorption spectra for the spectral region near the direct gap of the Ge quantum wells is shown in Fig. 4. The lowest energy (longest wavelength) absorption peak, which corresponds to the lowest direct transition in the quantum wells, shifts to longer wavelength (lower photon energy) with increasing electric field perpendicular to the quantum well layers. There is a weak underlying absorption tail that comes from the indirect absorption also.

Different device designs have different numbers of such quantum well and barrier

layers, with typical structures investigated so far having between 10 and 60 such layer pairs. In very recent work, we have now been able to model the various quantum-confined energy levels and transitions in these structures to deduce the key parameters such as effective masses and band offsets needed for device design [6]. Fig. 5 shows an image of the quantum wells in a typical sample, showing good layer quality.

ECS Transactions, 16 (10) 851-856 (2008)

854

Germanium quantum well modulator devices

We have now demonstrated the first modulator devices using this effect on silicon substrates [7][8], including operation [8] with 1V drive swing, compatible with silicon circuits, and in the important telecommunications C-band near 1550 nm wavelength. Figure 6 shows a schematic structure of one such modulator, designed to work for light entering and exiting through the sides of a silicon wafer. This device has achieved 3 dB contrast of optical transmission for 1 V drive swing. This particular device operates with a weak resonator structure, with mirrors formed from total internal reflection from the top surface of the device and a frustrated total internal reflection mirror formed from the buried oxide layer operated at a shallow angle of incidence. We have also shown waveguide structures with these materials [9]. Because of the strength of the QCSE, many different modulator structures are likely feasible; neither waveguides nor strong resonators are necessary to make viable devices, opening up many new possibilities for optical outputs from silicon chips.

20nm20nm

Figure 5. TEM image of a typical quantum well sample [6].

Figure 5. Schematic of a germanium quantum well side-entry modulator fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator wafer [8].

ECS Transactions, 16 (10) 851-856 (2008)

855

Conclusions Germanium quantum well structures grown on silicon are showing very clear and controllable quantum confinement effects and mechanisms, phenomena as strong as those previously only found in III-V material structures. The quantum-confined Stark effect is particularly promising, offering a very strong optical modulation mechanism in Group IV materials, one that looks to be compatible with silicon CMOS manufacture. This is very promising for future low-cost, high-performance integrated electronic and opto-electronic systems for computer interconnects and optical networks.

References

1. D. A. B. Miller, “Physical Reasons for Optical Interconnection,” Int. J.

Optoelectronics 11, 155-168 (1997) 2. D. A. B. Miller, “Rationale and Challenges for Optical Interconnects to Electronic

Chips,” Proc. IEEE 88, 728-749 (2000) 3. D. A. B. Miller, D. S. Chemla, T. C. Damen, A. C. Gossard, W. Wiegmann, T. H.

Wood and C. A. Burrus, "Electric Field Dependence of Optical Absorption near the Bandgap of Quantum Well Structures,” Phys. Rev. B32, 1043-1060 (1985)

4. Y.-H. Kuo, Y. K. Lee, Y. Ge, S. Ren, J. E. Roth, T. I. Kamins, D. A. B. Miller, and J. S. Harris Jr., “Strong quantum-confined Stark effect in germanium quantum-well structures on silicon,” Nature 437, 1334-1336 (2005)

5. Y.-H. Kuo, Y. K. Lee, Y. Ge, S. Ren, J. E. Roth, T. I. Kamins, D. A. B. Miller, and J. S. Harris Jr., “Quantum-Confined Stark Effect in Ge/SiGe Quantum Wells on Si for Optical Modulators ,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 12, 1503-1513 (2006)

6. R. K. Schaevitz, J. E. Roth, S. Ren, O. Fidaner, and D. A. B. Miller, “Material Properties in Si-Ge/Ge Quantum Wells,” (to be published, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron.)

7. J. E. Roth, O. Fidaner, R. K. Schaevitz, Y. -H. Kuo, T. I. Kamins, J. S. Harris, and D. A. B. Miller, "Optical modulator on silicon employing germanium quantum wells," Opt. Express 15, 5851-5859 (2007)

8. J. E. Roth, O. Fidaner, E. H. Edwards, R. K. Schaevitz, Y.-H. Kuo, N. C. Helman, T. I. Kamins, J. S. Harris, and D. A. B. Miller, “C-band side-entry Ge quantum-well electroabsorption modulator on SOI operating at 1 V swing,” Electronics Lett. 44, 49 – 50 (2008)

9. O. Fidaner, A. K. Okyay, J. E. Roth, R. K. Schaevitz, Y.-H. Kuo, K. C. Saraswat, J. S. Harris, Jr., and D. A. B. Miller, “Ge-SiGe Quantum-Well Waveguide Photodetectors on Silicon for the Near-Infrared,” IEEE Photonics Technol. Lett. 19, 1631 – 1633 (2007)

ECS Transactions, 16 (10) 851-856 (2008)

856