Patent ID: 9742150
Date: 2017-08-22
CPC Classifications: H01S

Claim:
1. An optical amplifier device, comprising: an optical waveguide core comprising silicon, the optical waveguide core including: an input portion; a middle portion; an output portion; and tapers, the middle portion connected to the input portion and the output portion via the tapers, the latter widening outwardly, whereby the middle portion has an effective refractive index that is smaller than an effective refractive index of any of the input portion and the output portion; an active gain material layer stack comprising a stack of III-V semiconductor material layers stacked along a first direction x, said stack of III-V semiconductor material layers having different refractive indices relative to one another such that the active gain material layer stack has an effective refractive index, the latter being larger than an effective refractive index of the middle portion, wherein the active gain material layer stack comprises two opposite ends, including a first end and a second end, the active gain material layer stack extending, from said first end to said second end, relative to a subsection of said optical waveguide core that comprises said middle portion and said tapers, the active gain material layer stack having a footprint substantially equal to that of the middle portion and the tapers of the optical waveguide core; a dielectric material layer between the active gain material layer stack and the optical waveguide core; and electrical contacts in electrical communication with the active gain material layer stack, the electrical contacts having a length along an extension direction of the contacts that is substantially equal to a length of the active gain material layer stack.