Lithographic wavelength control of an external cavity laser with a silicon photonic crystal cavity-based resonant reflector

Polycrystalline silicon PhC cavities for CMOS on-chip integration

In this work, we present an on-chip 2D and 3D photonics integration solution compatible with Front End of Line integration (FEOL) using deposited polycrystalline silicon (poly:Si) for optical interconnects applications. Deposited silicon integration on a bulk silicon wafer is here discussed in all its processing steps and configurations. Moreover, results of deposited silicon high-Q Photonic Crystal (PhC) resonators are shown, demonstrating the possibility to employ optical resonators patterned on this material in the next generation of 2D and 3D integrated optical interconnects.

Photothermal switch of sub-microsecond response: a monolithic-integrated ring resonator and a metasurface absorber in silicon photonic crystals

Here, we demonstrate an all-silicon photonic switch, working at an infrared communication wavelength and pumped by spatial light, where a ring resonator and a metasurface absorber are both designed in photonic crystals and monolithically integrated on a silicon-on-insulator wafer. Through selective doping, the absorber gets a pump absorption completely different from near zero of the resonator. Based on the thermo-optical effect, the device is capable of tuning the wavelength of the guided mode by $\sim{341}\;{\rm pm/mW}$∼341pm/mW and switching in time $ {\lt} {1.0}\;\unicode{x00B5} {\rm s}$<1.0µs to the pump response. The high responsivity and switching speed as well as all-silicon processing techniques make the design potentially for free-space optical communication and detection.

Hybrid External Cavity Laser with an Amorphous Silicon-Based Photonic Crystal Cavity Mirror

The authors present results on the performance of a hybrid external cavity photonic crystal laser-comprising semiconductor optical amplifier, and a 2D photonic crystal cavity fabricated in low-temperature amorphous silicon. The authors demonstrate that lithographic control over amorphous silicon photonic crystal cavity-resonant wavelengths is possible, and that single-mode lasing at optical telecommunications wavelengths is possible on an amorphous silicon platform.

Frequency modulated hybrid photonic crystal laser by thermal tuning

We demonstrate frequency modulation (FM) in an external cavity (EC) III-V/silicon laser, comprising a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) and a silicon nitride (SiN) waveguide vertically coupled to a 2D silicon photonic crystal (PhC) cavity. The PhC cavity acts as a tunable narrowband reflector giving wavelength selectivity. The FM was achieved by thermo-optical modulation of the reflector via a p-n junction. Single-mode operation was ensured by the short cavity length, overlapping only one longitudinal laser mode with the reflector. We investigate the effect of reflector modulation theoretically and experimentally and predict a substantial tracking of the resonator by the laser frequency with very small intensity modulation (IM).

Narrow-linewidth, tunable external cavity dual-band diode lasers through InP/GaAs-Si3N4 hybrid integration

We demonstrate hybridly integrated narrow-linewidth, tunable diode lasers in the InP/GaAs-Si₃N₄ platform. Silicon nitride photonic integrated circuits, instead of silicon waveguides that suffer from high optical loss near 1 µm, are chosen to build a tunable external cavity for both InP and GaAs gain chips at the same time. Single frequency lasing at 1.55 µm and 1 µm is simultaneously obtained on a single chip with spectral linewidths of 18-kHz and 70-kHz, a side mode suppression ratio of 52 dB and 46 dB, and tuning range of 46 nm and 38 nm, respectively. The resulting dual-band narrow-linewidth diode lasers have potential for use in a variety of novel applications such as integrated difference-frequency generation, quantum photonics, and nonlinear optics.

Thermally stable hybrid cavity laser based on silicon nitride gratings

In this paper, we show the experimental results of a thermally stable Si₃N₄ external cavity (SiN EC) laser with high power output and the lowest SiN EC laser threshold to our knowledge. The device consists of a 250 μm sized reflective semiconductor optical amplifier butt-coupled to a passive chip based on a series of Si₃N₄ Bragg gratings acting as narrow reflectors. A threshold of 12 mA has been achieved, with a typical side-mode suppression ratio of 45 dB and measured power output higher than 3 mW. Furthermore, we achieved a mode-hop free-lasing regime in the range of 15-62 mA and wavelength thermal stability up to 80°C. This solves the challenges related to cavity resonances' thermal shift and shows the possibility for this device to be integrated in dense wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) and heat-intensive optical interconnects technologies.

Wavelength stability in a hybrid photonic crystal laser through controlled nonlinear absorptive heating in the reflector

The need for miniaturized, fully integrated semiconductor lasers has stimulated significant research efforts into realizing unconventional configurations that can meet the performance requirements of a large spectrum of applications, ranging from communication systems to sensing. We demonstrate a hybrid, silicon  photonics-compatible photonic crystal (PhC) laser architecture that can be used to implement cost-effective, high-capacity light sources, with high side-mode suppression ratio and milliwatt output output powers. The emitted wavelength is set and controlled by a silicon PhC cavity-based reflective filter with the gain provided by a III-V-based reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA). The high power density in the laser cavity results in a significant enhancement of the nonlinear absorption in silicon in the high Q-factor PhC resonator. The heat generated in this manner creates a tuning effect in the wavelength-selective element, which can be used to offset external temperature fluctuations without the use of active cooling. Our approach is fully compatible with existing fabrication and integration technologies, providing a practical route to integrated lasing in wavelength-sensitive schemes.

Loss induced coherent combining in InP-Si3N4 hybrid platform

Loss, as a time-reversed counterpart of gain, can also be used to control lasing in an optical system with coupled cavities. In this study, by manipulating mirror losses at different output ports of coupled Fabry-Perot cavities, an integrated coherently combined laser system is proposed and experimentally demonstrated in the InP-Si3N4 hybrid platform. Two InP-based reflective semiconductor amplifiers are coherently combined through an adiabatic 50:50 directional coupler in silicon nitride. The combining efficiency is ~92% at ~2× threshold. The novel system not only realizes the miniaturization of coherent laser beam combining but also provides a chip-scale platform to study the coherent coupling between coupled laser cavities.

Photonic crystal waveguides on silicon rich nitride platform

We demonstrate design, fabrication, and characterization of two-dimensional photonic crystal (PhC) waveguides on a suspended silicon rich nitride (SRN) platform for applications at telecom wavelengths. Simulation results suggest that a 210 nm photonic band gap can be achieved in such PhC structures. We also developed a fabrication process to realize suspended PhC waveguides with a transmission bandwidth of 20 nm for a W1 PhC waveguide and over 70 nm for a W0.7 PhC waveguide. Using the Fabry-Pérot oscillations of the transmission spectrum we estimated a group index of over 110 for W1 PhC waveguides. For a W1 waveguide we estimated a propagation loss of 53 dB/cm for a group index of 37 and for a W0.7 waveguide the lowest propagation was 4.6 dB/cm.