Light Emitting Silicon for Microphotonics (Springer Tracts in Modern Physics)

A fascinating insight into the state-of-the-art in silicon microphotonics and on what we can expect in the near future. The book presents an overview of the current understanding of getting light from silicon. It concentrates mainly on low dimensional silicon structures, like quantum dots, wires and wells, but covers also alternative approaches like porous silicon and the doping of silicon with rare-earths. The emphasis is on the experimental and theoretical achievements concerning the optoelectronic properties of confined silicon structures obtained during recent years. Silicon based photonic crystals are in particular considered. An in depth discussion of the route towards a silicon laser is presented. Introduction: Fundamental Aspects.- Electron States and Optical Properties in Confined Silicon Structures.- Porous Silicon.- Silicon Nanostructures: Wells, Wires, and Dots.- Light Emission of Er3+ in Silicon.- Silicon Based Photonic Crystals.- Conclusions and Future Outlook.