3D-printed optical-electronic integrated devices

Abstract

The monolithic incorporation of electrical and optical components is critically important for achieving high-speed on-chip signal processing, but yet hard to satisfy the explosive growth in the demands on bandwidth and information density. Three-dimensional (3D) circuits, which are desirable for their improved performance in data handling, are ideal candidates to simultaneously promise high-capacity computing with improved speed and energy efficiency. In such highly integrated circuits, however, the selective electrical modulation of light signals is still difficult to achieve owing to the lack of controllable integration of micro-scale optical functional devices and modulation units. In this work, we demonstrate an electrically modulated microlaser module on a 3D-integrated microsystem composed of a dye-doped polymeric microcavity and an underneath microscale electrical heating circuit. The lasing mode was modulated based on electrical heating-assisted thermo-optic response of the polymeric matrices, which were further fabricated into coupled microdisks, yielding wavelength-tunable single-mode microlasers with selective electrical modulation. On this basis, a prototype of electrically controlled microlaser module with reduced signal cross-talk was achieved. The results will provide a useful enlightenment for the rational design of novel tunable optical devices with more complicated functionalities under far-field regulation, paving the way for the on-chip optoelectronic integration.