Towards silicon based light emitter utilising the radiation from dislocation networks

On-chip optical interconnects require a CMOS-compatible electrically pumped Si-based light emitter at about 1.5 mu m. Dislocations in silicon offer a recombination centre for light emission at the desired energy. Here we report on the radiative properties of dislocation networks, created in a well controllable manner at a certain depth of silicon wafers. Dislocation networks, created by ion implantation and annealing, misfit dislocation in SiGe buffers and a novel concept of dislocations created by misoriented direct bonded Si wafers are discussed. We demonstrate that under a specific misorientation a dislocation network with efficient room temperature D1 (1.55 mu m) emission might be generated. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.