#MATERIALS: "Researchers integrate silicon, III-V"

Integrating gallium nitride emitters and other optical materials onto silicon substrates was recently demonstrated at the Toyohashi University of Technology. Researchers there claim to have solved the lattice mismatch problem between silicon and III-V materials, thereby enabling future integration of optics onto silicon chips.


Cross-section of the counter circuit demonstrating how to lattice match silicon with III-V optical materials. Source: Toyohashi University of Technology (Toyohashi Tech)

Silicon photonics has been demonstrated for most optical functions, including waveguides, resonators and switches, but optical emitters has remained a task for III-V materials using gallium, arsenide, indium and their various nitrides. Now Toyohashi Tech (Aichi, Japan) claims to have invented a method of mitigating the lattice mismatch between silicon and III-V materials, thereby enabling optical emitters—including lasers—to be fabricated on silicon chips...
Further Reading: http://bit.ly/NextGenLog-ezPV