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This study theoretically investigates the impact of external carrier noise from pumping sources on the optical noise of epitaxial quantum dot (QD) lasers on silicon. The findings indicate that the spectral linewidth and relative intensity noise (RIN) of silicon-based QD lasers using a quiet pump are significantly reduced. At 5.5 times the threshold current, the spectral linewidth decreases from 337.2 kHz to 213.2 kHz, and the RIN decreases from −141.3 dB Hz ^−1 to −168.8 dB Hz ^−1 . This reduction is attributed to the lower external carrier noise level of the quiet pump, which also suppresses the spectral linewidth rebroadening effect at a high bias current. Moreover, when external optical injection locking is applied, the spectral linewidth further decreases to 24 kHz at an injection ratio of −70 dB and to 1.8 mHz at 0 dB. The RIN also slightly decreases to −172.4 dB Hz ^−1 with an injection ratio of 10. These results demonstrate that using a quiet pump is an effective and manageable strategy for significantly reducing both the spectral linewidth and RIN of QD lasers, thereby facilitating their application in next-generation photonic integrated circuits, continuous-variable quantum key distribution, quantum computing and ultra-precise quantum sensing.

In this report, we measured experimentally the modal absorption spectra of the InP and InAsP quantum dot (QD) lasers using multi-section device technique. The optical absorption cross section (σ0) and inhomogeneous broadening for the ground state (GS) and excited state (ES) were analyzed and calculated theoretically from the absorption spectra. The results showed that the InP QD laser exhibited σ0 to be 1.347×10−14 ​cm2.eV and 3.016×10−14 ​cm2eV for GS and ES respectively, whereas for the InAsP QD material it was found as 0.511×10−14cm2eV and 3.099×10−14cm2.eV for GS and ES respectively. Moreover, the inhomogeneous broadening in the GS increases from 35.6 eV to 63.6 eV when As was added to InP QD, similarly, the inhomogeneous broadening of ES increases from 46.9 eV to 103.8 eV. The alloying InP QDs with arsenic decreases the σ0 of the ground state (lasing state) and increases both inhomogeneous and linewidth broadenings. This finding may help the grower to control the growth conditions and the molecule fractions of the crystal to improve the spectral properties of the optoelectronics devices.

We report for the first time the direct growth of quantum dot (QD) lasers with electrical pumping on 300 mm Si wafers on both a planar template and in-pocket template for in-plane photonic integration. O-band lasers with five QD layers were grown with molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) in a 300 mm reactor and then fabricated into standard Fabry–Perot ridge waveguide cavities. Edge-emitting lasers are demonstrated with high yield and reliable results ready for commercialization and scaled production, and efforts to make monolithically integrated lasing cavities grown on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers vertically aligned and coupled to SiN waveguides on the same chip show the potential for 300 mm-scale Si photonic integration with in-pocket direct MBE growth.

The family of III-nitride materials has provided a platform for tremendous advances in efficient solid-state lighting sources such as light-emitting diodes and laser diodes. In particular, quantum dot (QD) lasers using the InGaN/GaN material system promise numerous benefits to enhance photonic performance in the blue wavelength regime. Nevertheless, issues of strained growth and difficulties in producing InGaN QDs with uniform composition and size pose daunting challenges in achieving an efficient blue laser. Through a review of two previous studies on InGaN/GaN QD microdisk lasers, we seek to provide a different perspective and approach in better understanding the potential of QD emitters. The lasers studied in this paper contain gain material where QDs are sparsely distributed, comprise a wide distribution of sizes, and are intermixed with “fragmented” quantum well (fQW) material. Despite these circumstances, the use of microdisk cavities, where a few distinct, high-quality modes overlap the gain region, not only produces ultralow lasing thresholds (∼6.2 μJ/cm2) but also allows us to analyze the dynamic competition between QDs and fQWs in determining the final lasing wavelength. These insights can facilitate “modal” optimization of QD lasing and ultimately help to broaden the use of III-nitride QDs in devices.

In this paper, the nonlinear rate equations governing a quantum dot laser isused to simulate the transient as well as the steady-state behaviors of the laser.Computation results show that the rate equations are capable of simulating true behaviorof a quantum dot laser. Then, the pump rates of the rate equations (which show indirectelectrical pumping of the quantum dots through a wetting layer) are changed so thatthey can show direct electrical pumping of the quantum dots. Simulation results predictthat a quantum dot laser with direct pumping has much lower threshold current than theindirect one. It is also shown that duration time of the transient regime to reach steadystate operation is shorter in direct pumping.

The spontaneous emission spectra of a 1.28?m InAs/GaAs QD (Quantum Dot) Fabry-Perot laser device has been measured under continuous wave operation at a fixed junction temperature of 300K. At low carrier densities, empirically observed static peak wavelength position and a fixed spectral shape of the spontaneous emission spectra are indicative of the random-like population distribution rather than a global Fermi level in the system. A theoretical model based on the Monte-Carlo method has been shown to have good agreement with the empirical results. In addition the evolutions of spontaneous emission spectral shapes are also explained in terms of many body effects.

Aiming to realize high-speed optical transmitters for isolator-free telecommunication systems, 1.3 μm p-modulation doped InGaAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) lasers with a 400 μm long cavity have been reported. Compared with the un-doped QD laser as a reference, the p-doped QD laser emits at ground state, with an ultra-low threshold current and a high maximum output power. The p-doped QD laser also shows enhanced dynamic characteristics, with a 10 Gb/s large-signal direct modulation rate and a 7.8 GHz 3dB-bandwidth. In addition, the p-doped QD laser exhibits a strong coherent optical feedback resistance, which might be beyond −9 dB.

This paper reports a hybrid integrated light source fabricated on a silicon platform using a 1.3 μm wavelength quantum dot array laser. Temperature insensitive characteristics up to 120 °C were achieved by the optimum quantum dot structure and laser structure. Light output power was obtained that was high enough to achieve an optical error-free link of a silicon optical interposer. Furthermore, we investigated a novel spot size convertor in a silicon waveguide suitable for a quantum dot laser for lower energy cost operation of the optical interposer.

In this paper, modulation bandwidth characteristics of InGaAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) laser were theoretically investigated. Simulation was done by using the fourth order Runge-Kutta method. Effect of carrier relaxation life time, temperature and current density on characteristics of tunneling injection QD laser (TIL) and conventional QD laser (CL) were analyzed. Results showed that tunneling injection in QD laser increases the modulation bandwidth indicating that it is very useful for using in the fiber optic communication systems.

The nondegenerate four-wave mixing (NDFWM) characteristics in a quantum-dot Fabry-Perot laser are investigated, employing the dual-mode injection-locking technique. The solitary laser features two lasing peaks, which provides the possibility for efficient FWM generation. Under optical injection, the NDFWM is operated up to a detuning range of 1.7 THz with a low injection ratio of 0.42. The normalized conversion efficiency (NCE) and the side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) with respect to the converted signal are analyzed. The highest NCE of -17 dB associated with a SMSR of 20.3 dB is achieved at detuning of 110 GHz.

The super-thermal photon bunching in quantum-dot (QD) micropillar lasers is investigated both experimentally and theoretically via simulations driven by dynamic considerations. Using stochastic multi-mode rate equations we obtain very good agreement between experiment and theory in terms of intensity profiles and intensity-correlation properties of the examined QD micro-laser’s emission. Further investigations of the time-dependent emission show that super-thermal photon bunching occurs due to irregular mode-switching events in the bimodal lasers. Our bifurcation analysis reveals that these switchings find their origin in an underlying bistability, such that spontaneous emission noise is able to effectively perturb the two competing modes in a small parameter region. We thus ascribe the observed high photon correlation to dynamical multistabilities rather than quantum mechanical correlations.

Direct capture of carriers from the wetting layer to the most confined states is discussed in this paper. This channel for carrier scattering was recently used to fit typical P-I curves of quantum dot lasers. Here new numerical expressions for the escape times accounting for the carriers added by the direct channel are introduced and evaluated, and insights of the influence of these additional carriers on the continuous and pulsed laser emission spectrum are given.