Abstract
Abstract Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) have emerged as a vital approach for realizing energy-efficient and high-speed optical interconnects in the data centers and supercomputers. Indeed, VCSELs are the most suitable mass production lasers in terms of cost-effectiveness and reliability. However, there are still key challenges that prevent achieving modulation speeds beyond 30s GHz. Here, we propose a novel VCSEL design of a hexagonal transverse-coupled-cavity adiabatically coupled through a central cavity. Following this scheme, we show a prototype demonstrating a 3-dB roll-off modulation bandwidth of 45 GHz, which is five times greater than a conventional VCSEL fabricated on the same epiwafer structure. This design harnesses the Vernier effect to increase the laser’s aperture and therefore is capable of maintaining single-mode operation of the laser for high injection currents, hence extending the dynamic roll-off point and offering increases power output. Simultaneously, extending both the laser modulation speed and output power for this heavily deployed class of lasers opens up new opportunities and fields of use ranging from data-comm to sensing, automotive, and photonic artificial intelligence systems.
Highlights
Semiconductor lasers, allowing for indispensable science and a wide range of technologies, have become one of the most important enablers of photonics-based technologies [1]
We propose and show that a Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) cavity surrounded by multiple TCCs (MTCCs) adiabatically provides direct slow-light feedback from each transversecoupled cavity (TCC) to the main lasing cavity
While the conventional VCSEL being driven at Iconventional = 7 mA, which is the maximum power before it saturates, our designed VCSEL is just operated at 8 mA for the inner cavity with surrounding cavities driven at constant current of 2 mA below threshold bias current
Summary
Semiconductor lasers, allowing for indispensable science and a wide range of technologies, have become one of the most important enablers of photonics-based technologies [1]. We introduce and demonstrate a new design of a VCSEL combining MTCCs, which aims to enhance slow-light optical feedback, extending the temporal laser bandwidth (speed) beyond the limit of the relaxation oscillation frequency. Even if the direct feedback from each cavity is only moderate, it will yet redistribute the optical field density by funneling the slow-light mode into the central cavity, which effectively allows generating sufficient feedback to extend the temporal laser bandwidth (speed). Following this coupled cavity scheme, we show a resulting modulation bandwidth in the 100 GHz range. Optimizing the lattice design, we show extending the laser stability for higher output power by about three times compared with conventional VCSEL fabricated on same epiwafer [30]
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