| Description |
The development of group-IV semiconductor lasers has attracted significant attention in recent years, since it represents the key missing ingredient for the large-scale monolithic integration of electronics and photonics in a CMOS-compatible fashion. The main challenge is to convert the indirect-bandgap group-IV materials into efficient light emitters. Many researchers have focused on improving the light emission efficiency of these materials in the near-infrared (NIR) spectral region, to replace the existing chip-to-chip communication technology with optical links. At the same time, group-IV lasers operating at mid-infrared (MIR) wavelengths also possess many important applications, mainly in the area of chemical and biological sensing, such as trace-gas detection, environmental monitoring, medical diagnostics, and industrial process control. |
