Preface to the Special Topic on Compound Semiconductor Materials and Devices on Si

摘要

The research in silicon photonics has been booming due to its potential for lowcost,reliable,energy-efficient and high-density chip-wise integration using widely available CMOS technology,featuring the tremendous success in modulator,detector and other passive waveguide components in industry.However,the absence of efficient and reliable electrical to optical converter on Si platform has been considered as“the last piece of the puzzle”,hindered by the in-direct bandgap property of Si bulk materials.CompoundⅢ–Ⅴsemiconductor devices offer highly efficient optical light emitting sources and optical amplifiers,hence the compound semiconductor materials and devices on Si platform are drawing more and more attention nowadays as it could make possible the long-dreamed light sources on Si substrates by combining their advantages with silicon ICs,enabling the fabrication of full functional optoelectronic circuits,chip-to-chip and even system-to-system optical chips.