A new discovery for Si-SiN

March 2023 - University of Southampton and UCL researchers find that Si-SiN is able to improve both electrical and optical properties of the edge-emitting light-emitting diodes

Researchers in the University of Southampton and UCL have made an important discovery that Si-SiN is able to improve both electrical and optical properties of the edge-emitting light-emitting diodes (ELEDs).

The researchers investigate the surface and interface engineering on InAs quantum dot (QD) emitters by fabricating and measuring a series of ELEDs. These diodes are encapsulated with non-stoichiometric SiN layers with various refractive indices. By analysing the optical and electrical characteristics, the researchers find that Si-rich SiN is an excellent candidate for both electrical and optical passisvations with reduced surface recombination. While the N-rich SiN deposited by the same method shows an improved device performance under optical pumping, the passivation does not appear to be as effective under electrical injection.

The findings provide important information related to the surface engineering of the interface between InAs QD stacks and non-stoichiometric SiN materials, which is arguably one of the crucial steps required to establish monolithic integration of InAs QD emitters with CMOS photonics components.

The findings were published in March 2023 in the Journal of Luminescence -

Hou Y, Skandalos I, Tang M, Jia H, Deng H, Yu X, Noor Y, Stathopoulos S, Chen S, Liu H, Seeds A, Reed G and Gardes F (2023). "Surface/interface engineering of InAs quantum dot edge-emitting diodes toward III-V/SiN photonic integration", Journal of Luminescence, Volume 258, June 2023, 119799. DOI: 10.1016/j.jlumin.2023.119799