Erbium-doped hybrid waveguide amplifiers with net optical gain on a fully industrial 300 mm silicon nitride photonic platform.

John Rönn,Antti Matikainen,Zhengrui Tu,Eric Cassan,Zhipei Sun,Carlos Alonso-Ramos,Harri Lipsanen,Elena Durán-Valdeiglesias,Laurent Vivien,Xavier Leroux,Frederic Boeuf,Jianhao Zhang,Nathalie Vulliet,Weiwei Zhang

doi:10.1364/oe.399257

Abstract

Recently, erbium-doped integrated waveguide devices have been extensively studied as a CMOS-compatible and stable solution for optical amplification and lasing on the silicon photonic platform. However, erbium-doped waveguide technology still remains relatively immature when it comes to the production of competitive building blocks for the silicon photonics industry. Therefore, further progress is critical in this field to answer the industry's demand for infrared active materials that are not only CMOS-compatible and efficient, but also inexpensive and scalable in terms of large volume production. In this work, we present a novel and simple fabrication method to form cost-effective erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers on silicon. With a single and straightforward active layer deposition, we convert passive silicon nitride strip waveguide channels on a fully industrial 300 mm photonic platform into active waveguide amplifiers. We show net optical gain over sub-cm long waveguide channels that also include grating couplers and mode transition tapers, ultimately demonstrating tremendous progress in developing cost-effective active building blocks on the silicon photonic platform.

Highlights

Modern information society is based on a physical infrastructure where electronics plays an essential role
We show net optical gain over sub-cm long waveguide channels that include grating couplers and mode transition tapers, demonstrating tremendous progress in developing cost-effective active building blocks on the silicon photonic platform
We use the simplest form of waveguides, i.e. silicon nitride strip waveguides in order to produce waveguide amplifiers with small cross-sections

Summary

Introduction

Modern information society is based on a physical infrastructure where electronics plays an essential role. Despite the recent progress in the field, there is still a relatively long way to go before erbium-based integrated devices can be established as fundamental active building blocks in the silicon photonics industry Further improvements, such as higher gain, scalable fabrication process and lower deposition temperatures need to be pursued for ultimate cost-efficiency and silicon photonic circuit compatibility. We present a simple and cost-effective method to fabricate erbium-doped integrated waveguide amplifiers on silicon by combining a fully industrial 300 mm silicon nitride photonic platform with a scalable and CMOS-compatible atomic layer deposition process. On this photonic platform, we use the simplest form of waveguides, i.e. silicon nitride strip waveguides in order to produce waveguide amplifiers with small cross-sections. The results and methods presented in this work show significant progress in developing cost-effective integrated waveguide amplifiers on silicon, opening a solid path to the future realization of silicon-erbium-based micro-cavity and multi-channel laser devices where optical gain achieved in compact footprint is highly desired

Device fabrication

Device characterization

10 L log10

Transmission measurements

Summary