Query: Integrated finely tunable microring laser on silicon

Candidate papers:

abstract: Finely tunable microring laser exploits integrated capacitive structure. Large scale computer installations are severely limited by network bandwidth constraints and energy costs that arise from architectural designs originally based on copper interconnects1. Wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) photonic links can increase the network bandwidth but are sensitive to environmental perturbations and manufacturing imperfections that can affect the precise emission wavelength and output power of laser transmitters2,3. Here, we demonstrate a new design of a three terminal hybrid III V on silicon laser that integrates a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) capacitor into the laser cavity. The MOS capacitor makes it possible to introduce the plasma dispersion effect4 and thus change the laser modal refractive index and free carrier absorption (FCA) loss to tune the laser wavelength and output power, respectively. The approach enables a highly energy efficient method to tune the output power and wavelength of microring lasers, with future prospects for high speed, chirp free direct laser modulation. The concept is potentially applicable to other diode laser platforms.
author_names: Di Liang

Xue Huang

Geza Kurczveil

Marco Fiorentino

Raymond G Beausoleil
title: Integrated finely tunable microring laser on silicon
year: 2016

abstract: Tracking changes in a photonic integrated circuit is an essential task for many applications, such sensing or telecommunication systems. In particular, locking of laser to a microring resonator and tracking resonance shifts over time with high accuracy can improve several applications such as sensing and biosensing. In this work, we present a novel system to lock a laser to a silicon photonics microring resonance and track the changes in wavelength over time. An electronic digital feedback loop balances the power at outputs of the microring (at the through and the drop ports) by tuning finely the wavelength of the input laser. The silicon photonics chip is equipped with integrated photodiodes at each port of the microring. The low noise of photodiodes, together with the resolution of the tuning of the laser, allows achieving locking with less than 7 femtometers as residual noise at 1550 nm. The digital implementation of the feedback loop permits to reach bandwidth up to 1 kHz. Demonstration of the locking has been made with several different microring resonators, with Q factor varying from 5000 to 60000.
author_names: Nicola Peserico

P Barbi

Melchiorre Bruccoleri

Charles Baudot

Antonio Fincato

Maurizio Zuffada

Carlo Guardiani

Andrea Melloni
title: System for tracking femtometer resonance shifts of silicon photonics microring resonator by locking tunable laser
venue: OPTO
year: 2018

abstract: We demonstrate detailed characterization results of a hybrid InP TriPleX photonic integrated tunable laser based on silicon nitride microring resonators. A tuning range of 50 nm across the C band, side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) >50 dB, high output power ~10 dBm) linewidth of <80 kHz across the whole tuning range, and ms switching speed are achieved. The delayed self heterodyne (DSH) method is used for the linewidth measurement, the lowest linewidth can be achieve is ~35 kHz. The FM noise spectrum is also measured to show the 1/f noise and white noise characterization. Furthermore, the device demonstrates performance comparable with commercial external cavity lasers in 64 QAM coherent system.
author_names: Yi Lin

Colm Browning

Roelof Bernardus Timens

Douwe H Geuzebroek

Chris G H Roeloffzen

Marcel Hoekman

Dimitri Geskus

Ruud M Oldenbeuving

Rene G Heideman

Youwen Fan

Klaus J Boller

Liam P Barry
title: Characterization of Hybrid InP TriPleX Photonic Integrated Tunable Lasers Based on Silicon Nitride (Si 3N4/SiO2) Microring Resonators for Optical Coherent System
venue: IEEE Photonics Journal
year: 2018

abstract: A tunable laser source is a crucial photonic component for many applications, such as spectroscopic measurements, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) frequency modulated light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) In this article, we demonstrate the first monolithically integrated erbium doped tunable laser on a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible silicon photonics platform. Erbium doped Al2O3 sputtered on top is used as a gain medium to achieve lasing. The laser achieves a tunability from 1527 nm to 1573 nm, with a >40 dB side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) The wide tuning range (46 nm) is realized with a Vernier cavity, formed by two Si3N4 microring resonators. With 107 mW on chip 980 nm pump power, up to 1.6 mW output lasing power is obtained with a 2.2% slope efficiency. The maximum output power is limited by pump power. Fine tuning of the laser wavelength is demonstrated by using the gain cavity phase shifter. Signal response times are measured to be around 200 ms and 35 us for the heaters used to tune the Vernier rings and gain cavity longitudinal mode, respectively. The linewidth of the laser is 340 kHz, measured via a self delay heterodyne detection method. Furthermore, the laser signal is stabilized by continuous locking to a mode locked laser (MLL) over 4900 seconds with a measured peak to peak frequency deviation below 10 Hz.
author_names: Nanxi Li

Diedrik Vermeulen

Zhan Su

Emir Salih Magden

Ming Xin

Neetesh Singh

Alfonso Ruocco

Jelena Notaros

Christopher Vincent Poulton

Erman Timurdogan

Christopher Baiocco

Michael Robert Watts
title: Monolithically integrated erbium doped tunable laser on a CMOS compatible silicon photonics platform.
venue: Optics express
year: 2018

abstract: Mid infrared microring resonators have been extensively studied for biochemical sensing applications. To characterize such resonators, a tunable laser or spectrometer has usually been utilized in previous studies. However, it is challenging to integrate these bulky instruments on a chip, ineluctably limiting practical applications. Here, we study a method for characterizing a microring resonator by using a monochromatic laser to conquer this limitation. Specifically, we theoretically probe the quality factor, extinction ratio, and resonant wavelength shift of a graphene on silicon microring resonator at a wavelength of 2.7 um. Our work paves the way for studying monochromatically chip integrated cavities and their applications.
author_names: Weicheng Chen

Haofeng Hu

Zhenzhou Cheng

Tiegen Liu
title: Characterization method of a mid infrared graphene on silicon microring with a monochromatic laser
venue: Journal of the Optical Society of America B
year: 2020

author_names: Yi Lin

Colm Browning

Roelof Bernardus Timens

Douwe H Geuzebroek

Chris G H Roeloffzen

Marcel Hoekman

Dimitri Geskus

Ruud M Oldenbeuving

Rene G Heideman

Youwen Fan

Klaus J Boller

Liam P Barry
title: Corrections to "Characterization of Hybrid InP TriPleX Photonic Integrated Tunable Lasers Based on Silicon Nitride (Si3N4/SiO2) Microring Resonators for Optical Coherent System"
venue: IEEE Photonics Journal
year: 2018

abstract: The fast growing fields of coherent optical communications, light detection and ranging (LIDAR) etc. have huge demand for narrow linewidth lasers. While laboratory scale lasers have high stability with narrow linewidth down to few Hz, they are usually in large size and unable to be integrated with chip scale optical systems. In this paper, we develop a new on chip semiconductor laser by introducing the Vernier effect and the self injection locking effect simultaneously between a Fabry Perot diode laser and an external microresonator on silicon chip. The proposed laser is demonstrated with a narrow linewidth of 8 kHz and wide switchable range of 17 nm. This paper explores a new scheme to realize narrow linewidth with wide tunability for on chip semiconductor lasers.
author_names: Yu Li

Yuanjue Zhang

Hongwei Chen

Sigang Yang

Minghua Chen
title: Tunable Self Injected Fabry Perot Laser Diode Coupled to an External High Q Si3N4 /SiO2 Microring Resonator
venue: Journal of Lightwave Technology
year: 2018

abstract: We present a monolithic InP based photonic integrated circuit (PIC) consisting of a widely tunable laser master oscillator feeding an array of integrated semiconductor optical amplifiers that are interferometrically combined on chip in a single mode waveguide. We demonstrate a stable and efficient on chip coherent beam combination and obtain up to 240 mW average power from the monolithic PIC, with 30 50 kHz Schawlow Townes linewidths and >180 mW average power across the extended C band. We also explored hybrid integration of the InP based laser and amplifier array PIC with a high quality factor silicon nitride microring resonator. We observe lasing based on gain from the interferometrically combined amplifier array in an external cavity formed via feedback from the silicon nitride microresonator chip; this configuration results in narrowing of the Schawlow Townes linewidth to ~3 kHz with 37.9 mW average power at the SiN output facet. This work demonstrates a new approach toward high power, narrow linewidth sources that can be integrated with on chip single mode waveguide platforms for potential applications in nonlinear integrated photonics.
author_names: Keith A McKinzie

Cong Wang

Abdullah Al Noman

David L Mathine

Kyunghun Han

Daniel E Leaird

Gloria E Hoefler

Vikrant Lal

Fred A Kish

Minghao Qi

Andrew M Weiner
title: InP high power monolithically integrated widely tunable laser and SOA array for hybrid integration.
venue: Optics express
year: 2021

abstract: The "<inline formula> <tex math notation="LaTeX"$2~\mu \text{m} /tex math>/inline formula> waveband" specifically the <inline formula> <tex math notation="LaTeX"$1.9~\mu \text{m} /tex math>/inline formula> wavelength region, is playing an increasingly imperative role in photonics. Development into compact tunable light sources operating at the wavelength region can unlock numerous technological applications. Instances, while not exhaustive, include alleviating the capacity load in fiber communications, H<sub>2</sub>O spectroscopy, optical logic, signal processing as well as enabling the optical Kerr effect on silicon. Silicon photonics is a disruptive technology. Through mature silicon processing, recent developments suggest that silicon will emerge as the workhorse of integrated optics. While the realization of a monolithic light source has proved to be challenging, the hybrid/heterogenous Si platforms, consisting of silicon and III V materials, has stepped to the fore. In this work, we present the study of Vernier based hybrid silicon photonic wavelength tunable lasers with an operating range of 1881 1947 nm (66 nm) subject to different coupling gaps (Gap<sub>mrr</sub> between the silicon microring resonators (MRRs) and bus waveguide. Wavelength tuning functionality is enabled via the thermo optic effect of MRRs. Gap<sub>mrr</sub> being the smallest feature in the assemble, is highly influential to the characteristics of the SHREC. As such, trends in hybrid laser performance with respect to Gap<sub>mrr</sub> are measured and analyzed. Slope efficiency, laser output power and side mode suppression ratio of 0.232 W/A, 28 mW and 42 dB respectively are obtained across the developed lasers. Through the design of the Vernier spectrum and Gap<sub>mrr</sub> tuning of laser wavelength from 1881 1947 nm can be achieved by applying only 47.2 mW of thermal power to a single MRR.
author_names: Jia Xu Brian Sia

Wanjun Wang

Zhongliang Qiao

Xiang Li

Tina X Guo

Jin Zhou

Callum George Littlejohns

Chongyang Liu

Graham T Reed

Hongzhong Wang
title: Analysis of Compact Silicon Photonic Hybrid Ring External Cavity (SHREC) Wavelength Tunable Laser Diodes Operating From 1881 1947 nm
venue: IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics
year: 2020

abstract: We demonstrate a wavelength tunable hybrid III V/Si transmitter based on a Vernier laser with more than 30 nm tuning range and two microring modulators nested in a Mach Zehnder interferometer. This transmitter circuit has versatile operating modes. It can be used for on off keying (OOK) generation based on low drive voltage push pull ring modulators and for quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) generation where binary phase shift keying signal is generated by each ring. We reported the first hybrid III V/Si integrated wavelength tunable transmitter based on high speed ring modulators (BW ~23 GHz) which can cover more than 30 nm. OOK signal generation with better signal integrity, lower drive voltage, and lower chirp is demonstrated as well as 80 Gbit/s polarization division multiplexing QPSK signal transmission over 100 km with the integrated hybrid transmitter and a fully packaged silicon based coherent receiver.
author_names: Guilhem de Valicourt

Chia-Ming Chang

Jeffrey Lee

Michael S Eggleston

Chen Zhu

Jeffrey H Sinsky

Kwangwoong Kim

Po Dong

Anaelle Maho

Romain Brenot

Young-Kai Chen
title: Integrated Hybrid Wavelength Tunable III V/Silicon Transmitter Based on a Ring Assisted Mach Zehnder Interferometer Modulator
venue: Journal of Lightwave Technology
year: 2018