1.8-µm thulium microlasers integrated on silicon

Jonathan D. B. Bradley; Zhan Su; E. Salih Magden; Nanxi Li; Matthew Byrd; Purnawirman P.; Thomas N. Adam; Gerald Leake; Douglas Coolbaugh; Michael R. Watts

doi:10.1117/12.2213678

24 February 2016 1.8-μm thulium microlasers integrated on silicon

Jonathan D. B. Bradley, Zhan Su, E. Salih Magden, Nanxi Li, Matthew Byrd, Purnawirman P., Thomas N. Adam, Gerald Leake, Douglas Coolbaugh, Michael R. Watts

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9744, Optical Components and Materials XIII; 97440U (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2213678
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2016, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

A key challenge for silicon photonic systems is the development of compact on-chip light sources. Thulium-doped fiber and waveguide lasers have recently generated interest for their highly efficient emission around 1.8 μm, a wavelength range also of growing interest to silicon-chip based systems. Here, we report on highly compact and low-threshold thulium-doped microcavity lasers integrated with silicon-compatible silicon nitride bus waveguides. The 200-μmdiameter thulium microlasers are enabled by a novel high quality-factor (Q-factor) design, which includes two silicon nitride layers and a silicon dioxide trench filled with thulium-doped aluminum oxide. Similar, passive (undoped) microcavity structures exhibit Q-factors as high as 5.7 × 10⁵ at 1550 nm. We show lasing around 1.8–1.9 μm in aluminum oxide microcavities doped with 2.5 × 1020 cm⁻³ thulium concentration and under resonant pumping around 1.6 μm. At optimized microcavity-waveguide gap, we observe laser thresholds as low as 773 μW and slope efficiencies as high as 23.5%. The entire fabrication process, including back-end deposition of the gain medium, is silicon-compatible and allows for co-integration with other silicon-based photonic devices for applications such as communications and sensing.

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Jonathan D. B. Bradley, Zhan Su, E. Salih Magden, Nanxi Li, Matthew Byrd, Purnawirman P., Thomas N. Adam, Gerald Leake, Douglas Coolbaugh, and Michael R. Watts "1.8-μm thulium microlasers integrated on silicon", Proc. SPIE 9744, Optical Components and Materials XIII, 97440U (24 February 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2213678

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