Single-photon emission from electrically driven InP quantum dots epitaxially grown on CMOS-compatible Si(001)

Nanotechnology. 2012 Aug 24;23(33):335201. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/23/33/335201. Epub 2012 Jul 30.

Abstract

The heteroepitaxy of III-V semiconductors on silicon is a promising approach for making silicon a photonic platform. Mismatches in material properties, however, present a major challenge, leading to high defect densities in the epitaxial layers and adversely affecting radiative recombination processes. However, nanostructures, such as quantum dots, have been found to grow defect-free even in a suboptimal environment. Here we present the first realization of indium phosphide quantum dots on exactly oriented Si(001), grown by metal-organic vapour-phase epitaxy. We report electrically driven single-photon emission in the red spectral region, meeting the wavelength range of silicon avalanche photodiodes' highest detection efficiency.