Erbium-doped Ga2O3 waveguide for optical amplification

Abstract

We prepared an Er3+-doped gallium oxide amorphous film using a radio frequency magnetron sputtering method and fabricated the waveguide using ultraviolet lithography and inductively coupled plasma etching to explore its optical amplification performance. In a 7 mm long waveguide, we achieved an on-chip gain of ∼4.7 dB at a pump power of 48.6 mW (∼16.9 dBm) and a signal power of 57.5 nW (∼−42.4 dBm). The preliminary results indicate the great potentials of an amorphous Ga2O3 film as a photonic material, especially in the application of an on-chip optical amplifier.