SILICON-BASED OPTOELECTRONICS

The decade of the 1990's is an opportune time for scientists and engineers to create cost-effective silicon ''superchips'' that merge silicon photonics with advanced silicon electronics on a silicon substrate. We can expect significant electrooptical devices from Column IV materials (Si, Ge, C, and Sn) for a host of applications. The best devices will use strained-layer epitaxy, doped heterostructures, and bandgap engineering of quantum-confined structures. This paper reviews Si-based photonic components and optoelectronic integration techniques, both hybrid and monolithic.