Abstract
Optoelectronic integration on silicon is an area of increasing interest for both physicists and the microelectronics industry. Due to the limitations of silicon as an optical gain medium, the integration of III-Vs with silicon microelectronics has become a prominent area of research. However, the fundamental physical differences between these materials has caused such lasers to be strongly limited by non-radiative recombination. Studies of these mechanisms are therefore essential for solutions to be developed that will allow commercially viable III-V/Si lasers to be fabricated. This thesis presents such studies for three of the four leading approaches to producing III-V/Si lasers (quantum dots on silicon are not studied), with conclusions on the relative performance of each presented in the final chapter. AlGaInAs/InP laser active regions wafer bonded onto pre-processed silicon-on-insulator waveguides have exhibited strong performance, with electrical injection lasing demonstrated at room temperature. However, large and temperature sensitive threshold current densities of 3.4 6.16 kAcm