Single-Mode Photonic Crystal Nanobeam Lasers Monolithically Grown on Si for Dense Integration

Ultra-compact III-V nanolasers monolithically integrated on Si with ultra-low energy consumption and small modal volume have been emerged as one of the most promising candidates to achieve Si on-chip light sources. However, the significant material dissimilarities between III-V and Si fundamentally limit the performance of Si-based III-V nanolasers. In this work, we report 1.3 μm InAs/GaAs quantum-dot photonic-crystal (PhC) nanobeam lasers directly grown on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor compatible on-axis Si (001) substrates. The continuous-wave optically pumped PhC nanobeam lasers exhibited a single-mode operation, with an ultra-low lasing threshold of ∼ 0.8 μW at room temperature. In addition, a nanoscale physical volume of ∼ 8 × 0.53 × 0.36 μm
³
(∼ 25 (λ
n
⁻¹
)
³
) was realized through a small number of air-holes in PhC nanobeam laser. The promising characteristics of the PhC nanobeam lasers with small footprint and ultra-low energy consumption show their advanced potential towards densely integrated Si photonic integrated circuits.