Tunable External Cavity Laser Research Articles

Development of hybrid photonic integrated wavelength-tunable laser at 2 µm and its application to FMCW LiDAR

This paper reports on the experimental demonstration of a fully integrated frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) LiDAR sensing system, operating at 2.0 µm. It makes use of a widely tunable hybrid external cavity laser based on the combination of GaSb gain chip and silicon waveguide circuits. The single-frequency laser operation over the full spectral bandwidth of the gain chip is secured using a frequency-selective filter, consisting of two sequential microring resonators in a Vernier configuration. To increase the mode-hop free wavelength tuning range while preserving the linewidth of the laser, the heater of the phase section placed along the bus waveguide is synchronously controlled with two independent heaters placed on each microring resonator. This laser is then implemented for the development of an FMCW LiDAR, consisting of all-optical fiber-based two independent unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometers: k-space interferometer for the linearization of continuously swept laser frequency and main interferometer for the measurement of the distributed back-reflection over the distance. The optical frequency of the laser is continuously swept over a ∼100 GHz range (or Δλ=1.47 nm at the operating wavelength) at a modulation speed of 100 Hz. Using this wavelength tunable laser, a light detection and ranging system (LiDAR) is experimentally demonstrated, showing a very high axial resolution of 1.36 mm in air with an extremely high precision of ∼9 µm at a 100 Hz measurement rate.

Linewidth measurement of external cavity lasers

Narrowband laser sources are used in applications that require high-precision or stable optical frequency. Such applications include high-resolution spectroscopy, long-distance measurement, and coherent optical communication. The linewidth of a laser is a direct measure of the laser's stability; therefore, characterization of laser linewidth is essential. In practice, however, determining a laser's linewidth is not a trivial task and typically requires expensive equipment or a complex experimental arrangement. This paper presents a straightforward, low-cost method based on unbalanced interferometry, which allows us to determine the visibility of fringe patterns as a function of the optical path difference and, consequently, the linewidth of the laser. As a test laser, we use a tunable external cavity laser source at around 780 nm, where an interference filter is employed for wavelength selection. Data obtained by applying the interferometric technique to this laser and the analysis of these data, along with the resulting linewidth value, are presented. Given that the described measurement setup is inexpensive, straightforward, and pedagogically accessible, it is well-suited for an instructional physics laboratory experiment and will also be of interest to laboratory researchers.

Widely and fast tunable external cavity laser on the thin film lithium niobate platform

We develop an integrated external cavity laser with a broad wavelength tuning range and a fast switching speed on thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) platform. By butt coupling an InP-based optical gain chip with a TFLN external cavity chip, a hybrid lithium niobate/III-V tunable laser with a wavelength switching speed of 18 ns is achieved. Furthermore, using a cascaded external cavity filter composed of three micro-ring resonators (MRRs), the laser features an ultra-wide wavelength tuning range of 96 nm across the C + L + U bands, which is the greatest value known for tunable lasers integrated on TFLN. The maximum laser output power is 0.98 mW, with a measured side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of better than 52 dB. The laser we developed is critical in applications such as optical sensors and wavelength routed optical switch.© 2023 xxxxxxxx. Hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Synchronous filtering method for improving the optical signal-to-noise ratio of a tunable laser based on the Fabry-Pérot interferometer.

Optical measurements are closely related to the optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of the laser, which can be improved using a tunable optical filter (TOF) to suppress frequency noise. For an external-cavity tunable laser with a tuning range larger than the TOF bandwidth, the wavelength at the center of the TOF passband must be varied based on the laser tuning. This study proposes a tunable-laser OSNR-enhancement method based on the Fabry-Pérot (FP) interferometer. The FP signal contains the wavelength information of the swept laser, which can be used to determine the real-time driving voltage of the TOF. Notably, the laser needs to be continuously tunable without mode hopping, and the free spectral range of the FP interferometer must be smaller than the TOF bandwidth.

Hybrid integrated tunable external cavity laser with sub-10 Hz intrinsic linewidth

In this work, a hybrid integrated tunable external cavity laser (ECL) with a sub-10 Hz intrinsic linewidth is demonstrated. In this hybrid ECL, two Si3N4-based subwavelength hole defect assisted microring resonators, acting as high-Q laser reflectors, are butt-coupled with a chip-scale semiconductor optical amplifier at the two edges, respectively. The experimental results show that the hybrid ECL achieves a sub-10 Hz intrinsic linewidth across a wavelength tuning range from 1525 to 1565 nm, featuring a record lowest value of 6.06 Hz. The demonstrated hybrid ECL opens up opportunities toward the applications of high-speed optical communications and high-resolution light detection and ranging.

Review of 1.55 μm Waveband Integrated External Cavity Tunable Diode Lasers

The 1.55 μm waveband integrated external cavity tunable diode lasers have excellent merits such as their small volume, low cost, low power consumption, wide tuning range, narrow linewidth, large side mode suppression ratio, and high output power. These merits have attracted many applications for the lasers, such as in wavelength division multiplexing, passive optical networks, mobile backhaul, and spectral sensing technology. In this paper, firstly, the basic structure and principle of integrated external cavity tunable diode lasers are introduced, and then two main integrated structures of 1.55 μm waveband external cavity tunable diode lasers are reviewed and compared in detail, namely the hybrid integrated structure and monolithic integrated structure of 1.55 μm waveband integrated external cavity tunable diode lasers. Finally, the research progress in 1.55 μm waveband integrated external cavity tunable diode lasers in the last decade are summarised, and the advantages and disadvantages of 1.55 μm waveband integrated external cavity tunable diode lasers are analysed. The results show that, with the transformation of optical communication into more complex modulation formats, it is necessary to integrate miniature 1.55 μm waveband external cavity tunable diode lasers. Low-cost integrated 1.55 μm waveband external cavity tunable diode lasers are expected to be used in the next generation of optical transceivers in small-factor modules.

Hybrid integrated chip-scale laser systems

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) allow for the rapid advancement of a wide range of optical devices on a compact platform, making them more useful and readily available in the commercial market. Various materials such as III–V semiconductors, silicon, silicon nitride, lithium niobate, and polymers are used to create PICs with certain unique properties. Hybrid integration can combine multiple material platforms via optical coupling and realize multi-functional PICs that overcome the limitations of a single material platform. This allows for a broad application base for hybrid integrated PICs, greatly enhancing their usability and practicality. In this paper, we will discuss the methodology and applications of hybrid integration for chip-scale laser systems, including narrow linewidth, widely tunable external cavity lasers, laser beam combining, integrated frequency combs, and integrated Pockels lasers.

A Model of Dual Fabry–Perot Etalon-Based External-Cavity Tunable Laser Using Finite-Difference Traveling-Wave Method

A physical model of an external-cavity tunable laser (ECTL) utilizing the vernier effect of a dual Fabry–Perot (FP) etalon is presented and simulated using the finite-difference traveling wave (FDTW) method. In this paper, we provide a detailed explanation of the physical principle and construction process of the model, as well as the simulation results for the laser. The model is precisely established by studying the time-dependent changes in the carrier concentration and optical field of different wavelengths inside the laser before reaching a steady state. By determining multiple parameters in the tuning region and gain region, the proposed model can calculate and predict various laser parameters, such as output power and side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR). Moreover, the FDTW method displays the change process of various parameters, such as carrier concentration and spectrum, in the convergence of various positions in the laser with femtosecond time resolution. This capability is promising for in-depth research on the inner mechanism of lasers.

Fully Integrated Solid-State LiDAR Transmitter on a Multi-Layer Silicon-Nitride-on-Silicon Photonic Platform

We report a LiDAR transmitter incorporating both a hybrid-integrated tunable external cavity laser and a high-resolution 2-D optical phased array beam-steerer. Widely tunable single-mode lasing over a span of approximately 100 nm is achieved with >42 dB side-mode-suppression-ratio, 18 mW output power, and 2.8 kHz linewidth. Two-dimensional beam steering in a field-of-view of 140° × 16° exhibits a beam divergence of 0.051° × 0.016° measured in full width at half maximum. Leveraging the low propagation loss, negligible nonlinear loss, and low thermal sensitivity of silicon nitride, and combining the high mode confinement and efficient thermal tuning of silicon, the device affirms the feasibility of high-power on-chip lasing, power bottleneck elimination, and low on-chip insertion loss. It represents the first demonstration of a fully integrated LiDAR transmitter on the multi-layer silicon-nitride-on-silicon photonic platform, revealing the potential of complementary integration in the effort toward a LiDAR transmitter of sufficient optical power budget.

Silicon nitride stress-optic microresonator modulator for optical control applications.

Modulation-based control and locking of lasers, filters and other photonic components is a ubiquitous function across many applications that span the visible to infrared (IR), including atomic, molecular and optical (AMO), quantum sciences, fiber communications, metrology, and microwave photonics. Today, modulators used to realize these control functions consist of high-power bulk-optic components for tuning, sideband modulation, and phase and frequency shifting, while providing low optical insertion loss and operation from DC to 10s of MHz. In order to reduce the size, weight and cost of these applications and improve their scalability and reliability, modulation control functions need to be implemented in a low loss, wafer-scale CMOS-compatible photonic integration platform. The silicon nitride integration platform has been successful at realizing extremely low waveguide losses across the visible to infrared and components including high performance lasers, filters, resonators, stabilization cavities, and optical frequency combs. Yet, progress towards implementing low loss, low power modulators in the silicon nitride platform, while maintaining wafer-scale process compatibility has been limited. Here we report a significant advance in integration of a piezo-electric (PZT, lead zirconate titanate) actuated micro-ring modulation in a fully-planar, wafer-scale silicon nitride platform, that maintains low optical loss (0.03 dB/cm in a 625 µm resonator) at 1550 nm, with an order of magnitude increase in bandwidth (DC - 15 MHz 3-dB and DC - 25 MHz 6-dB) and order of magnitude lower power consumption of 20 nW improvement over prior PZT modulators. The modulator provides a >14 dB extinction ratio (ER) and 7.1 million quality-factor (Q) over the entire 4 GHz tuning range, a tuning efficiency of 162 MHz/V, and delivers the linearity required for control applications with 65.1 dB·Hz2/3 and 73.8 dB·Hz2/3 third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) at 1 MHz and 10 MHz respectively. We demonstrate two control applications, laser stabilization in a Pound-Drever Hall (PDH) lock loop, reducing laser frequency noise by 40 dB, and as a laser carrier tracking filter. This PZT modulator design can be extended to the visible in the ultra-low loss silicon nitride platform with minor waveguide design changes. This integration of PZT modulation in the ultra-low loss silicon nitride waveguide platform enables modulator control functions in a wide range of visible to IR applications such as atomic and molecular transition locking for cooling, trapping and probing, controllable optical frequency combs, low-power external cavity tunable lasers, quantum computers, sensors and communications, atomic clocks, and tunable ultra-low linewidth lasers and ultra-low phase noise microwave synthesizers.

Analytical Models for External Cavity Lasers Using Tunable Etalons

Recently, external-cavity tunable lasers (ECTLs) have been widely used in WDM systems for their excellent characteristics, such as high side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR), low relative intensity noise (RIN) and narrow line width. In this paper, we propose an analytical model for external-cavity lasers using tunable etalons and elaborate on the selection of key parameters in the design scheme, which is rarely discussed in detail in previous researches. By numerically solving the model based on the rate equation and the transmission matrix, we analyzed the effects of different end-facet reflectivity on the SMSR, PI curves, electron and photon concentration distributions. In addition, By choosing appropriate physical parameters, we theoretically demonstrate an ECTL with a single wavelength tuning range of 1570.5–1603.6 nm (186.95–190.9 THz), and a power efficiency of 0.673 W/A, as well as an SMSR exceeds 50 dB.

Spectral splicing for an OFDR sensing system using a DBR laser.

A spectral splicing method is proposed for an optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) sensing system using a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser. An external cavity tunable laser (ECTL) is used in a conventional OFDR sensing system. There are no reports to our knowledge about using a DBR laser as the light source for an OFDR sensing system. A DBR laser has the advantages of small size, no mechanical scanning, easy integration, and low cost. However, due to the mode hopping, the wavelength can only be continuously tuned in the range of about 1 nm. The spectral splicing method was used to splice 39 partially overlapping Rayleigh scattering signals into a continuous signal with wavelength of 35.174 nm. Distributed optical fiber strain sensing with 5 mm spatial resolution is realized. The strain range is ±2500µε, and the maximum error of the measured strain is 9.91 µε.

Widely tunable external-cavity surface-emitting laser using various methods.

We report a widely tunable optically pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser. The multiple quantum wells in the active region of the gain chip are generally designed to form the resonant periodic gain structure, and three different methods are used to tune the oscillating wavelength. The maximum wavelength coverage of 45 nm is obtained when a 2 mm thickness birefringent filter is introduced in a straight-line cavity, while the tuning range of 8 nm is performed by employing a 0.15 mm thickness uncoated Fabry-Perot etalon. For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, we present an 11 nm tuning range by the use of an inserted blade as the tuning element, and the related wavelength tuning mechanism is analyzed.

Polymer waveguide tunable transceiver for photonic front-end in the 5G wireless network

A photonic front-end in the 5G wireless network based on wavelength-division multiplexing optical communication requires low-cost tunable transceivers. By exploiting polymer waveguide Bragg-grating technology, we propose a tunable transceiver consisting of an external cavity tunable laser and a tilted grating tunable filter. In particular, a double-reflection tunable filter provides narrower reflection bandwidth and suppresses undesired mode coupling, improving the side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) and reducing adjacent-channel crosstalk. By introducing perfluorinated polymers with low birefringence, polarization independence, which is a prerequisite for wavelength filter elements, is secured, and 20 dB bandwidth of 0.69 nm, wavelength tunability over 40 nm, and SMSR of 42 dB are achieved.

Phase locking technology for Raman laser system based on 1560 nm external cavity lasers

The technology of generating Raman laser is not only an important research content in the field of quantum precision measurement, but also a core technology of quantum inertial sensors such as cold atom gravimeter, gyroscope. For <sup>87</sup>Rb atoms, two 780-nm lasers with a frequency difference of 6.834 GHz and a stable phase are needed to generate Raman light. Raman lasers can be generated by optical phase-locked loops of two 780-nm narrow linewidth external cavity tunable semiconductor lasers (ECDL). But the system thus developed is complicated in structure and very poor in environmental adaptability. The other method to generate Raman laser is based on intracavity 1560-nm laser with frequency doubling and electro-optic modulation technology. This system is simple in structure and strong in environmental adaptability, but it will introduce sideband effects and cannot achieve phase lock due to the limit by the linewidth and feedback bandwidth performance of the laser. In view of this, based on two new 1560-nm external cavity lasers and a home-made phase-locked circuit, in this paper the phase lock of the laser is achieved, and a Raman laser with low phase noise is obtained. The phase noise of beat note signal is as low as –95 dBc/Hz at the Fourier frequency in a range from 1 kHz to 10 kHz. A comparison of this system with the phase-locked performance of the 780-nm dual laser and the hybrid dual laser shows that this scheme has a slight advantage. In addition, the effect of the phase-locking performance on the phase noise of the cold atom interferometer through the method of piecewise integration is analyzed in this work. The experimental results given in this work provide a scheme for developing a miniaturized Raman optical system suitable for external fields.

A Measurement Platform for Label-Free Detection of Biomolecules Based on a Novel Optical BioMEMS Sensor

In this article, a novel optical Bio-microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensing platform is proposed based on a tunable laser and its lasing wavelength to detect the biomolecules and measure their quantities. The present biosensor consists of a BioMEMS cantilever and a proposed external cavity tunable laser. While the target samples (i.e., DNA, mRNA, or protein) are exposed to the cantilever surface, target-analyte bindings are happened. This can induce a surface stress on the MEMS cantilever and results in its bending due to the surface stress difference in each side of the cantilever. Thus, the gap size between the laser cavity and the gain medium is changed which can be measured by the wavelength variations of the proposed tunable laser source. Consequently, by analyzing the output response, one can detect the amount of target biomolecules in the sample and assign a level of contamination, infection, or bioparticles, caused by the specific disease. Various parameters of the proposed device are designed by numerical and analytical approaches. Furthermore, functional characteristics of the present BioMEMS sensor are obtained as follows: mechanical sensitivity of $1.8~\mu \text{m}$ /Nm−1, optical sensitivity of 422 nm/RIU, Q-factor of 610, and resonant frequency of 6.43 kHz. The obtained functional characteristics of the proposed device show that the present optical BioMEMS sensor can be appealing for highly sensitive diagnoses of various types of diseases and their progress level.

Continuous-wave operation of InAs/InP quantum dot tunable external-cavity laser grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition* *Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61974141), Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, and Science and Technology Innovation Bureau of China-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City.

We demonstrate high-performance broadband tunable external-cavity lasers (ECLs) with the metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) grown InAs/InP quantum dots (QDs) structures. Without cavity facet coatings, the 3-dB spectral bandwidth of the Fabry–Perot (FP) laser is approximately 10.8 nm, while the tuning bandwidth of ECLs is 45 nm. Combined with the anti-reflection (AR) / high-reflection (HR) facet coating, a 92 nm bandwidth tuning range has been obtained with the wavelength covering from 1414 nm to 1506 nm. In most of the tuning range, the threshold current density is lower than 1.5 kA/cm2. The maximum output power of 6.5 mW was achieved under a 500 mA injection current. All achievements mentioned above were obtained under continuous-wave (CW) mode at room temperature (RT).

Laser stabilization to neutral Yb in a discharge with polarization-enhanced frequency modulation spectroscopy

Isotope selective optical excitation of atoms is important for experiments with neutral atoms, metrology, and work with trapped ions, including quantum information processing. Polarization-enhanced absorption spectroscopy is used to frequency stabilize a tunable external cavity laser diode system at 398.9 nm for isotope selective photoionization of neutral Yb atoms. This spectroscopy technique is used to measure isotope resolved dispersive features from transitions within a see-through configuration ytterbium hollow-cathode discharge lamp. This Doppler-free dichroic polarization spectroscopy is realized by retro-reflecting a laser beam through the discharge and analyzing the polarization dependent absorption with balanced detection. The spectroscopy signal is recovered using lock-in detection of frequency modulation induced by current modulation of the external cavity laser diode. Here, we show an order of magnitude improvement in the long-term stability using polarization-enhanced absorption spectroscopy of Yb compared to polarization spectroscopy.

A tunable external cavity laser operating at excited states of bimodal-sized quantum-dot

In this paper, a tunable external cavity diode laser (ECDL) based on the first excited states of two independent quantum dot (QD) ensemble has been demonstrated. The device exhibits stabilized lasing with high-power of 120 mW. We attribute the excellent output characteristics of the QD ECDL to carrier radiation recombination in high energy states, which has higher degeneracy than low energy states and can accommodate more carriers. The linewidth of ECDL is less than 0.2 nm, which is also much narrower than most of QD ECDLs as reported. Preliminary discussion attributes the spectra feature to the lower QD density and independent carrier transitions. The tunable range is 28.9 nm (970.1–999 nm) and the wavelength shift with the injection current is 0.7 nm A−1.

High-power broadly tunable grating-coupled external cavity laser in green region.

A broadly tunable grating-coupled external cavity laser system in the green region is demonstrated by employing a commercially available broad-area green laser diode. A simple Littrow-type external cavity configuration was adopted, and two gratings with different diffraction efficiencies were used as the light feedback elements. When a grating with the first-order diffraction efficiency of 50% and the zeroth-order diffraction efficiency of 31% was used, a tuning bandwidth of 11.0 nm with an output power near 400 mW was achieved. When a grating with the first-order diffraction efficiency of 10% and the zeroth-order diffraction efficiency of 78% was used, a tuning bandwidth of 5.0 nm with an output power near 750 mW was achieved. Meanwhile, the spectral linewidth was narrowed significantly down to 0.08-0.18 nm from the free-running linewidth of 2.81 nm due to the external mode selection effect. Such high-power broadly tunable green EC lasers are important for second harmonic generation.