NOVEL DESIGNS OF HIGH EFFICIENCY SILICON LIGHT EMITTING DIODES FOR SILICON NANOPHOTONICS

The primary objective of this proposal is to design and fabricate novel structures of silicon light-emitting diodes (Si-LEDs) that are capable of producing ever-high electro-optical efficiency for all optics Si nanophotonics. Our strategies are based on Si-based photonic crystals. The success of the project will accomplish four tasks: (1) Novel design and fabrication of high efficient Si-LEDs based on {113} defect engineering and Er-implanted nanocrystals, etc; (2) Novel design and simulation of Si-based photonic crystal structures in terms of photonic waveguides, switches, wavelength division multiplexers (WDM), bends, losses and their feasibility of integration and fabrication for nanophotonics; (3) Super integration of the Si-LEDs and SiGe photodiodes inside the total reflective Si-based photonic crystals for ever-high electro-optical and opto-electrical efficiency; (4) Finally, a simple monolithic nanophotonic system will be designed and fabricated based on photonic crystals, which consists of Si-LEDs arrays, photodiode arrays and coupling optics composed of waveguides, bends, switches and WDM, etc. Based on the proposed approaches, we strongly believe that more sophisticated nanophotonic systems can be designed and fabricated monolithically in independent nanophotonic integrated circuits and/or together with nanoelectronics. Such systems will be proposed through a Phase II project and/or an STTR fast track approach.