Room-temperature operation of a 2.25 μm electrically pumped laser fabricated on a silicon substrate

We report on a GaSb-based type-I laser structure grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a (001) silicon substrate. A thin AlSb nucleation layer followed by a 1 mu m thick GaSb buffer layer was used to accommodate the very large lattice mismatch existing with the silicon substrate. Processed devices with mesa geometry exhibited laser operation in pulsed mode with a duty cycle up to 10% at room temperature.