Prospects for silicon-silicide integrated photonics

The basic approaches for developing silicon electronic-photonic integrated circuits based on Si planar complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology have been reviewed. It was established that, to realize optical interconnects, heteroepitaxial growth technologies and/or direct wafer bonding technology must be developed for different types of substrates. This article proposes a new approach, which uses a silicon p-i-n diode with embedded β-FeSi2 nanocrystals as a basic element for the realization of near-infrared light emission, photodetection and modulation. The hitherto proposed three-dimensional (3D) stacking of silicon multichips with vertical optical inputs/outputs must be used in monolithic silicon-silicide electronic-photonic integrated circuits on bulk silicon substrates.