Abstract
The need for miniaturized, fully integrated semiconductor lasers has stimulated significant research efforts into realizing unconventional configurations that can meet the performance requirements of a large spectrum of applications, ranging from communication systems to sensing. We demonstrate a hybrid, silicon photonics-compatible photonic crystal (PhC) laser architecture that can be used to implement cost-effective, high-capacity light sources, with high side-mode suppression ratio and milliwatt output output powers. The emitted wavelength is set and controlled by a silicon PhC cavity-based reflective filter with the gain provided by a III–V-based reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA). The high power density in the laser cavity results in a significant enhancement of the nonlinear absorption in silicon in the high Q-factor PhC resonator. The heat generated in this manner creates a tuning effect in the wavelength-selective element, which can be used to offset external temperature fluctuations without the use of active cooling. Our approach is fully compatible with existing fabrication and integration technologies, providing a practical route to integrated lasing in wavelength-sensitive schemes.
Highlights
Silicon photonics takes advantage of the mature complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) infrastructure and processes and is actively pursued for the implementation of complex optical components and photonic integrated circuits (PICs) at low cost and high volumes
The backward-propagating light component acts as wavelength-selective feedback, with a linewidth on the order of 0.01–0.1 nm, resulting in the formation of a laser cavity between the reflective facet of the reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) and the photonic crystal (PhC) cavity (Fig. 1a, c)
The emitted wavelength is determined by the longitudinal mode of the laser cavity that lies within the PhC cavity reflection band (Fig. 1b)
Summary
Silicon photonics takes advantage of the mature complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) infrastructure and processes and is actively pursued for the implementation of complex optical components and photonic integrated circuits (PICs) at low cost and high volumes. The most essential building block of an optical system, an efficient light emitter, remains absent in PICs based on silicon. A commonly used method for circumventing the above problem is the combination of III–V materials with silicon via heterogeneous or hybrid integration. Based on such schemes, a number of different laser configurations have been proposed and demonstrated[1,2,3]. Uncooled operation is a prerequisite for costsensitive applications, but many lasers integrated on silicon still struggle to operate at temperatures above 50 °C. Precise wavelength control over a range of ambient temperatures is a requirement for WDM and optical sensing systems, which is a fundamental problem for uncooled operation
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