Er-doped silicon and silicon-rich silicon oxide have been investigated extensively for the potentially important applications in Si-compatible photonic devices such as silicon-based lasers, or optical amplifiers, owing to the fact that the emission wavelength of 1.53 µm lies in the minimum loss region of silica-based optical fibers. However the...

Bandgap engineering in semiconductors can be used to produce optoelectronic devices, such as photovoltaic devices and lasers for operation in different wavelengths. A new bandgap (or wavelength) can be achieved by alloying together two (or more) semiconductor materials of different bandgaps. However, existing methods of growing planar epitaxial...