Integrated Pockels laser

Abstract

The development of integrated semiconductor lasers has miniaturized traditional bulky laser systems, enabling a wide range of photonic applications. A progression from pure III-V based lasers to III-V/external cavity structures has harnessed low-loss waveguides in different material systems, leading to significant improvements in laser coherence and stability. Despite these successes, however, key functions remain absent. In this work, we address a critical missing function by integrating the Pockels effect into a semiconductor laser. Using a hybrid integrated III-V/Lithium Niobate structure, we demonstrate several essential capabilities that have not existed in previous integrated lasers. These include a record-high frequency modulation speed of 2 exahertz/s (2.0 × 1018 Hz/s) and fast switching at 50 MHz, both of which are made possible by integration of the electro-optic effect. Moreover, the device co-lases at infrared and visible frequencies via the second-harmonic frequency conversion process, the first such integrated multi-color laser. Combined with its narrow linewidth and wide tunability, this new type of integrated laser holds promise for many applications including LiDAR, microwave photonics, atomic physics, and AR/VR.

Frequency agile photonic integrated external cavity laser

“…Such fast wavelength switching and low measured actuator power consumption per switching of only 75 nW demonstrate an advantage of ECL with integrated PZT actuators over microheaters with typical switching times of hundreds of nanoseconds. The demonstrated values of switching time are on par with the recently demonstrated Vernier laser based on lithium niobate slab waveguides and Pockels effect-based tuning [30].…”

“…Lasers with such Vernier filters have significantly matured with the realization of filters in silicon [12,25], silicon nitride [26] or other material platforms [27,28] and reached sub-kHz intrinsic laser linewidths [12,29]. High-frequency modulation speed (exahertz/s) and switching speed of up to 50 MHz have only been demonstrated recently in Vernier-based integrated lasers based on lithium niobate [30], which are however compounded by phase noise that is above that achieved with silicon nitride [29]. Here, we report a hybrid integrated ECL based on RSOA and Vernier filters in low loss Si 3 N 4 PIC enhanced with integrated piezoelectric actuators, which constitutes a low cost solution, alleviating the use of DFB, while enabling high coherence and fast (MHz bandwidth), linear and low power frequency tuning.…”

Recent Developments of Electrically Pumped Nanolasers

“…Moreover, these III-V group materials display high gain characteristics, and they can also be grown directly on Si substrate, which shows a high application advantage in photonic integrated circuits. [128][129][130][131] However, this III-V group nanomaterials growth always involves a more complex fabrication process, which needs much higher power consumption and cost. Compared with the growth of III-V group nanomaterials, the II-VI group materials can be obtained with a simpler preparation method, such as the solution synthesis method.…”

High density lithium niobate photonic integrated circuits and lasers

“…In the recent wave of development, silicon nitride has emerged as an integrated photonics platform, offering lower loss, nonlinear operation, high power handling capability, and a wide optical transparency window, with novel capabilities including chipscale optical frequency comb sources 13 , traveling-wave optical parametric amplifiers 14,15 or integrated lasers that operate in the visible spectral range 16 . The commercial availability of Lithium Niobate on insulator -and ferroelectric thin film materials on insulator ('OI') 17,18 in general -can extend the functionality further by offering one of the highest Pockels coefficients, required to realize volt level high speed modulators 19,20 , electro-optical frequency combs 21 , photonic switching networks 22 , delay lines 23 , on-chip broadband spectrometers 24 and lasers 25 . Periodic poling of thin film-based LiNbO 3 ridge waveguides has allowed on-chip frequency doublers 26,27 , squeezed light sources 28 , and optical parametric oscillators 29 .…”