III-nitride semiconductor laser directly grown on Si is a potential on-chip light source for Si photonics. Moreover, it may greatly lower the manufacture cost of laser diodes and further expand their applications. Therefore, III-nitride lasers grown on Si have been pursued for about two decades. Different from GaN homoepitaxy on free-standing GaN substrates, III-nitride semiconductors grown on Si substrates are usually rich with strain and threading dislocations due to the large mismatch in both lattice constant and coefficient of thermal expansion between GaN and Si substrates, which hindered the realization of electrically injected lasing. The key challenges in the direct growth of high-quality III-nitride semiconductor laser materials on Si substrates, as well as their corresponding solutions, are discussed in detail. Afterwards, a comprehensive review is presented on the recent progress of III-nitride semiconductor lasers grown on Si, including Fabry-Pérot cavity lasers, microdisk lasers, and the lasers with nanostructures, as well as the monolithic integration of lasers on Si. Finally, the further development of III-nitride semiconductor lasers grown on Si is also discussed, including the material quality improvement and novel device structures for enhancing optical confinement and reducing electrical resistance, with a great prospect for better performance and reliability.

直接在 Si 上生长的 III 族氮化物半导体激光器是用于 Si 光子学的潜在片上光源。而且，它可以大大降低激光二极管的制造成本，进一步扩大其应用范围。因此，在硅上生长的 III 族氮化物激光器已经被研究了大约 20 年。与自支撑 GaN 衬底上的 GaN 同质外延不同，由于 GaN 和 Si 衬底之间的晶格常数和热膨胀系数的较大失配，在 Si 衬底上生长的 III 族氮化物半导体通常富含应变和螺纹位错，阻碍实现电注入激光。详细讨论了在 Si 衬底上直接生长高质量 III 族氮化物半导体激光材料的关键挑战及其相应的解决方案。然后，全面回顾了硅上生长的III族氮化物半导体激光器的最新进展，包括法布里-珀罗腔激光器、微盘激光器和纳米结构激光器，以及激光器在硅上的单片集成。最后，还讨论了在硅上生长的 III 族氮化物半导体激光器的进一步发展，包括材料质量的改进和用于增强光限制和降低电阻的新型器件结构，具有更好的性能和可靠性的广阔前景。