Monolithically integrated erbium-doped tunable laser on a CMOS-compatible silicon photonics platform
Author(s)
Li, Nanxi; Vermeulen, Diedrik Rene Georgette; Su, Zhan; Magden, Emir Salih; Xin, Ming; Singh, Neetesh Kumar; Ruocco, Alfonso; Notaros, Jelena; Poulton, Christopher Vincent; Timurdogan, Erman; Baiocco, Christopher; Watts, Michael; ... Show more Show less
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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 Al[subscript 2]O[subscript 3] 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 Si[subscript 3]N[subscript 4] 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 μs and 35 µs 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.
Date issued
2018-06Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of ElectronicsJournal
Optics Express
Publisher
The Optical Society
Citation
Li, Nanxi et al. "Monolithically integrated erbium-doped tunable laser on a CMOS-compatible silicon photonics platform." Optics Express 26, 13 (June 2018): 16200-16211 © 2018 Optical Society of America
Version: Final published version
ISSN
1094-4087