Heterogeneous III-V on silicon nitride amplifiers and lasers via microtransfer printing

Abstract

The development of ultralow-loss silicon-nitride-based waveguide platforms has enabled the realization of integrated optical filters with unprecedented performance. Such passive circuits, when combined with phase modulators and low-noise lasers, have the potential to improve the current state of the art of the most critical components in coherent communications, beam steering, and microwave photonics applications. However, the large refractive index difference between silicon nitride and common III-V gain materials in the telecom wavelength range hampers the integration of electrically pumped III-V semiconductor lasers on a silicon nitride waveguide chip. Here, we present an approach to overcome this refractive index mismatch by using an intermediate layer of hydrogenated amorphous silicon, followed by the microtransfer printing of a prefabricated III-V semiconductor optical amplifier. Following this approach, we demonstrate a heterogeneously integrated semiconductor optical amplifier on a silicon nitride waveguide circuit with up to 14 dB gain and a saturation power of 8 mW. We further demonstrate a heterogeneously integrated ring laser on a silicon nitride circuit operating around 1550 nm. This heterogeneous integration approach would not be limited to silicon-nitride-based platforms: it can be used advantageously for any waveguide platform with low-refractive-index waveguide materials such as lithium niobate.

Towards high-power, high-coherence, integrated photonic mmWave platform with microcavity solitons

“…In terms of signal coherence, recent studies have shown that the phase noise of the soliton repetition frequency at 10's of GHz can be orders of magnitude smaller than that of its pump laser 5,[19][20][21] . When microresonator solitons are married with integrated lasers 22,23 , amplifiers 24 , and high-speed photodiodes 25 through heterogeneous or hybrid integration, a fully integrated mmWave platform can be created with high-power, high-coherence performance, and the potential for large-scale deployment through mass production ( Fig. 1).…”

High-gain waveguide amplifiers in Si3N4 technology via double-layer monolithic integration

“…However, sophisticated assembly and packaging steps with high-precision alignment of the facets of the waveguides are required to achieve the high performance of such hybrid lasers [16], precluding costeffective scaling of manufacturing, especially in the case of devices with complex optical functionalities and high integration density, where many transitions between the active and passive sections are required. Heterogeneous integration of III-V semiconductor optical amplifiers onto Si 3 N 4 by micro-contact printing [17] has been proposed toward a more scalable solution.…”

Hybrid modeling approach for mode-locked laser diodes with cavity dispersion and nonlinearity

“…As for the example considered here the effective mode area is relatively large and the pulse energies are low (< 2.2 pJ), it is presumed that nonlinear losses play a salient role in chip-scale mode-locked lasers with a silicon waveguide cavity. Switching to a silicon-nitride platform could hence be a valuable alternative to eliminate the detrimental effects of two-photon- and free-carrier absorption altogether 60 . In case (3), the pulse width and peak power respectively decrease and increase with injection current.…”