AACHEN, Germany, July 24 -- Researchers from the RWTH Aachen, Stepanov Institute of Physics, Minsk and Aixtron have reported what they say is the first optically pumped blue laser chip based on InGaN/GaN using a silicon wafer substrate. The announcement was made this week at the International Workshop on Nitride Semiconductors in Aachen.
The group said the laser emits in the blue at 447 nm with an output power of 8 W, representing results close to that of lasers grown on sapphire and SiC substrates. Those results compliment the previously impressive research done this year by institutions such as the Research Center Juelich, Aachen University of Technology and the University of Magdeburg, in which various GaN compound semiconductors were grown successfully on wafers made of Si rather than the usual cost-intensive SiC or sapphire.