A Silicon-based Light Emitter

Although silicon is the leading semiconductor in the microelectronics industry, it is unable to perform as well in the optical area due to its indirect band gap and the lack of a strong electro-optic effect. Among the different approaches developed to overcome the intrinsic low efficiency of silicon as a light emitter, quantum confinement and rare earth doping of silicon (Fujii et al., 1997) have dominated the scientific scenario of silicon-based microphotonics. Especially, direct-current-injection excitation of erbium ions in silicon dioxide structure has showed significant luminescence at 1.54 mum (Castagna et al., 2003), which generated significant renewed interest in the potential of efficient silicon-base light emitters for communications applications