High n-type doping in Ge for optical gain and lasing

We review two ex-situ doping methods to achieve high n-type doping up to mid-10(19) cm(-3) in Ge-on-Si thin films. For both, delta doping and ion implantation, rapid thermal annealing is used to diffuse phosphorus from a diffusion source into the single crystal Ge layer. The diffusion mechanism is studied and we find that dopant enhanced diffusion in in-situ doped Ge attributes to the high doping level. A band gap narrowing effect is observed in highly doped n-type Ge through photoluminescence measurements by determining the photoluminescence peak shift. An empirical linear expression of the direct band gap narrowing shift with carrier concentration is proposed.