Although silicon is an indirect semiconductor, light emission from silicon is governed by the same generalized Planck's radiation law as the emission from direct semiconductors. The emission intensity is given by the absorptance of the volume in which there is a difference of the quasi Fermi energies. A difference of the Fermi energies may result from the absorption of external light (photoluminescence) or from the injection of electrons and holes via selective contacts (electroluminescence). The quantum efficiency may be larger than 0.5 for carrier densities below 10^{15} cm-3. At larger densities, non-radiative recombination, in particular Auger recombination dominates. At all carrier densities, the relation between emission intensity and difference of the quasi Fermi energies is maintained. Since this difference is equal to the voltage of a properly designed solar cell, luminescence is the key indicator of material quality for solar cells.

We report an above-band-gap radiative transition in the photoluminescence spectra of single crystalline Ge in the temperature range of 20~296 K. The temperature-independence of the peak position at ~0.74 eV is remarkably different from the behavior of direct and indirect gap transitions in Ge. This transition is observed in n-type, p-type, and intrinsic single crystal Ge alike, and its intensity decreases with the increase of temperature with a small activation energy of 56 meV. Some aspects of the transition are analogous to III-V semiconductors with dilute nitrogen doping, which suggests that the origin could be related to an isoelectronic defect.

Electroluminescence peaking at 1.3 \mum is observed from high concentration boron-diffused silicon p+-n junctions. This emission is efficient at low temperature with a quantum efficiency 40 times higher than that of the band-to-band emission around 1.1 \mum, but disappears at room temperature. The 1.3-\mum band possibly originates from the dislocation networks lying near the junction region, which are introduced by high concentration boron diffusion.

Wavelength tunable photoluminescence (PL) of Si-rich silicon nitride (SRSN) film with buried Si nanocrystals (Si-ncs) grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) under SiH4 and NH3 environment is investigated. Intense broadband visible emissions tunable from blue to red can be obtained from the as-deposited SiNx thin films with increasing NH3 flow rate from 150 to 250 sccm and detuning the SiH4/NH3 flow ratio during deposition. To date, the normalized PL wavelength of SiNx films after annealing could be detuned over the range of 385~675 nm by decreasing the NH3 flow rate, corresponding to an enlargement on Si-nc size from 1.5~2 to 4~5 nm. The PL linewidth is decreased with increasing ammonia flow rate due to the improved uniformity of Si-ncs under high NH3 flow rate condition. In addition, the PL intensity is monotonically increasing with the blue shift of PL wavelength due to the increasing density of small-size Si-ncs. The ITO/SiNx/p-Si/Al diode reveals highly resistive property with the turn-on voltage and power-voltage slope of only 20 V and 0.18 nW/V, respectively. The turn-on voltage can further reduce from 20 to 3.8 V by improving the carrier injection efficiency with p-type Si nano-rods.

A number of active elements have been demonstrated using the hybrid silicon evanescent platform, including lasers, amplifiers, and detectors. In this letter, two types of hybrid silicon modulators, fulfilling the building blocks in optical communication on this platform, are presented. A hybrid silicon electroabsorption modulator, suitable for high speed interconnects, with 10-dB extinction ratio at -5 V and 16-GHz modulation bandwidth is demonstrated. In addition, a hybrid silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator utilizing carrier depletion in multiple quantum wells is proved with 2 Vmm voltage-length product, 150-nm optical bandwidth, and a large signal modulation up to 10 Gb/s.

A new approach to reduce the reverse current of Ge pin photodiodes on Si is presented, in which an i-Si layer is inserted between Ge and top Si layers to reduce the electric field in the Ge layer. Without post-growth annealing, the reverse current density is reduced to ~10 mA/cm2 at -1 V, i.e., over one order of magnitude lower than that of the reference photodiode without i-Si layer. However, the responsivity of the photodiodes is not severely compromised. This lowered-reverse-current is explained by band-pinning at the i-Si/i-Ge interface. Barrier lowering mechanism induced by E-field is also discussed. The presented “non-thermal” approach to reduce reverse current should accelerate electronics-photonics convergence by using Ge on the Si complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) platform.

Channel dropping waveguide filters based on single and multiple resonators in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology are of great interest due to their compactness and high wavelength selectivity, which is a desirable feature for photonic modulators, detectors, and other optically integrated components in telecommunication systems, in particular for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems. Particular advantage of these filters is that they are capable of producing relatively large free spectral range (FSR) as well as narrow 3-dB bandwidth of the filter resonances. Herein we report experimental results and discuss the possibility of designing mono-mode and (nearly) polarization independent SOI ring and racetrack resonators with the FSR in excess of 30 nm.

We propose novel double-notch-shaped microdisk resonator-based devices with gapless waveguide-to-microdisk and inter-cavity coupling via the two notches of the microdisk. Both finite-difference time-domain simulations and experimental demonstrations reveal the high-quality-factor multimode resonances in such microdisks. Using such double-notch microdisk resonators, we experimentally demonstrate the many-element linearly cascaded-microdisk resonator devices with up to 50 elements on a silicon chip.

Whispering gallery modes in silica microspheres are excited by a tunable continuous-wave laser through the fiber taper. Ringing phenomenon can be observed with high frequency sweeping speed. The thermal nonlinearity in the microsphere can enhance this phenomenon. Our measurement results agree very well with the theoretical predictions by the dynamic equation.

We review some of the recent advances in the development of subwavelength plasmonic devices for manipulating light at the nanoscale, drawing examples from our own work in metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) plasmonic waveguide devices. We introduce bends, splitters, and mode converters for MDM waveguides with no additional loss. We also demonstrate that optical gain provides a mechanism for on/off switching in MDM plasmonic waveguides. Highly efficient compact couplers between dielectric waveguides and MDM waveguides are also introduced.

Partial bandgap characteristics of parallelogram lattice photonic crystals are proposed to suppress the radiation modes in a compact dielectric waveguide taper so as to obtain high transmittance in a large wavelength range. Band structure of the photonic crystals shows that there exists a partial bandgap. The photonic crystals with partial bandgap are then used as the cladding of a waveguide taper to reduce the radiation loss efficiently. In comparison with the conventional dielectric taper and the complete bandgap photonic crystal taper, the partial bandgap photonic crystal taper has a high transmittance of above 85% with a wide band of 170 nm.

A two-dimensional (2D) optimized nanotaper mode converter is presented and analyzed using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. It can convert the mode size in a silicon pillar waveguide (PWG) from 4 \mum to 1 \mum over a length of 7 \mum and achieve a transmission efficiency of 83.6% at a wavelength of 1.55 \mum. The dual directional mode conversion of the nanotaper and its ability to perform mode compression and expansion are also demonstrated. The broadband with high transmittance is satisfied in this structure. Using this silicon-based nanotaper, mode conversion between integrated photonic devices can be more compact and efficient.

A short overview of integrated waveguide demultiplexers for different applications in future highly integrated optical communication systems is presented. Some fabricated devices based on amorphous silicon nanowire technology are described.

Low dimensional silicon, where quantum size effects play significant roles, enables silicon with new photonic functionalities. In this short review, we discuss the way that silicon nanocrystals are produced, their optoelectronic properties and a few device applications. We demonstrate that low dimensional silicon is an optimum material for developing silicon photonics.

A deep binary silicon grating as high-extinction-ratio reflective polarizing beam splitter (PBS) at the wavelength of 1550 nm is presented. The design is based on the phenomenon of total internal reflection (TIR) by using the rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA). The extinction ratio of the rectangular PBS grating can reach 2.5\times10^5 with the optimum grating period of 397 nm and groove depth of 1.092 \mum. The efficiencies of TM-polarized wave in the 0th order and TE-polarized wave in the -1st order can both reach unity at the Littrow angle. Holographic recording technology and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching could be used to fabricate the silicon PBS grating.

We investigate the influence of multiple filamentation (MF) on the micromachining in Ag+-doped silicate glass irradiated by a 1-kHz femtosecond laser. The thresholds of MF and color change (CC) are measured for both linearly and circularly polarized laser beams. The results demonstrate that the thresholds of MF and CC are very close. The thresholds of CC and MF for circular polarization increase by ~1.4 times compared with linear polarization. Circular polarization can suppress the number of filaments to some extent compared with linear polarization. However, it is difficult to obtain CC without any filamentation if circular polarization technique is used alone.

Nano-crystalline silicon/silicon oxide (nc-Si/SiO2 structures have been prepared from amorphous silicon films on both silicon and quartz substrates by using electron-beam evaporation approach and annealing at temperatures about 600 oC in air. As a thermal oxidation procedure, the annealing treatment is not only a crystallization process but also an oxidation process. Scanning electron microscopy is employed to characterize the surface morphology of the nc-Si/SiO2 layers. Transmission electron microscopy study shows the sizes of nc-Si grains on the two different substrates. The nc-Si/SiO2 structures exhibit visible luminescence at room temperature as confirmed by photoluminescence spectroscopy. Comparing the photoluminescence spectra of different samples, our results agree with the quantum confinement-luminescence center model.

The internal transitions and absorption spectra of confined magnetoexcitons in GaAs/Ga0.7Al0.3As quantum wells have been theoretically investigated under magnetic fields along the growth direction of the semiconductor heterostructure. The magnetoexciton states are obtained within the effective-mass approximation by using a variational procedure. The trial exciton-envelope wavefunctions are described as hydrogeniclike polynomial functions. The internal transition energies are investigated by studying the allowed magnetoexcitonic transitions using terahertz radiation circularly polarized in the plane of the quantum well. The intraexcitonic magnetoabsorption coefficients are obtained for transitions from 1s-like to 2p^{+-}-like magnetoexciton states as functions of the applied magnetic field.

We propose a new scheme to generate broadband linearized optical single-sideband (OSSB) signal for radio over fiber systems. By using an unbalanced dual parallel Mach-zehnder modulator (DPMZM) followed by optical filtering, a linearized OSSB signal is obtained. With coherent detection, radio frequency (RF) signal can be recovered with simultaneously suppressed second-order distortion and third-order intermodulation. This scheme can be used to realize broadband systems with wide dynamic range.

Cyclic polling-based dynamic wavelength and bandwidth allocation algorithm supporting differentiated classes of services in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) passive optical networks (PONs) is proposed. In this algorithm, the optical line terminal (OLT) polls for optical network unit (ONU) requests to transmit data in a cyclic manner. Services are categorized into three classes: expedited forward (EF) priority, assured forwarding (AF) priority, and best effort (BE) priority. The OLT assigns bandwidth for different priorities with different strategies. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm saves a lot of downstream bandwidth under low load and does not show the light-load penalty compared with the simultaneous and interleaved polling schemes.

Sn/Yb codoped silica optical fiber preform is prepared by the modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) followed by the solution-doping method. Ultraviolet (UV) optical absorption, photoluminescence (PL) spectra under 978-nm laser diode (LD) pumping, and refractive index change after exposure to 266-nm laser pulses are obtained. There is only a little change in the PL spectra while a positive refractive index change up to 2\times10^{-4} is observed after 30-min exposure to 266-nm laser pulses. The results show that both of the peculiar photosensitivity of Sn-doped silica and the gain property of Yb-doped silica fiber are preserved in the Sn/Yb codoped silica optical fiber preform. The experimental data suggest that the photosensitivity of the fiber preform under high energy density laser irradiation should be mainly due to the bond-breaking of oxygen deficient defects, while under relatively low energy density laser irradiation, the refractive index change probably originates from the photoconversion of optically active defects.

A design approach is described to achieve spectral blocking filters of any spectral width and optical density for narrow blocking bands. We give new criterions to find the necessary number of layers from the desired bandwidth and optical density, and give new estimate equations which describe the number of layers required for designing a blocking filter of given bandwidth, high index, and optical density. This approach can be useful for laser line blocking, night vision filters, and many other general applications.

The core-shell gold nanoparticle film is fabricated by using nanolithography and self-assembly monolayer technology. The film exhibits unique optical properties and has strong surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity. The relationship between nanostructure and surface electrical field is studied by employing pyridine as the SERS probe. It is found that particle size and inter-particle space are important factors. The enhancement ratio is measured to be more than 10^4.

Fluorescence spectra of acetic acid-water solution excited by ultraviolet (UV) light are studied, and the relationship between fluorescence spectra and molecular association of acetic acid is discussed. The results indicate that when the exciting light wavelength is longer than 246 nm, there are two fluorescence peaks located at 305 and 334 nm, respectively. By measuring the excitation spectra, the optimal wavelengths of the two fluorescence peaks are obtained, which are 258 and 284 nm, respectively. Fluorescence spectra of acetic acid-water solution change with concentrations, which is primarily attributed to changes of molecular association of acetic acid in aqueous solution. Through theoretical analysis, three variations of molecular association have been obtained in acetic acid-water solution, which are the hydrated monomers, the linear dimers, and the water separated dimers. This research can provide references to studies of molecular association of acetic acid-water, especially studies of hydrogen bonds.