Relaxation oscillations suppression and undamping in a hybrid photonic crystal laser

As demand towards cloud-based services and high-performance computations grows, it imposes requirements on data center performance, and efficiency. Taking advantage of the mature CMOS process technology, and the fact that silicon is the basic material of electronics industry, silicon photonics makes possible production photonic integrated circuits that satisfy these requirements. Here we explore the short-cavity hybrid laser consisting of a III-V amplifier integrated with a silicon photonic crystal (PhC) cavity reflector by so-called butt-coupling approach. The laser possesses great stability characteristics meeting the criteria for data center interconnect applications. The PhC reflector having a Q-factor of 104 at the lasing wavelength 1535 nm can be considered as a narrow-bandwidth filter. The laser demonstrates single mode and eventless operation without any dynamics on the background, and smooth radiofrequency spectrum without evidence of relaxation oscillation frequency. The latter fact is beneficial for many applications, and indicates extremely high damping in PhC laser, where the photon cavity lifetime is greatly improved by the high-Q PhC cavity reflector. We confirm our experimental observations by theory based on delay differential equation model for a single-section semiconductor laser. We reveal the effective damping of the laser, when the detuning between the filter peak and the laser cavity mode is small, and the imaginary parts of the model eigenvalues equal zero. It is possible to undamp the relaxation oscillations forcing self-Q-switched operation in the laser owing to the cumulative action of the alpha-factor and the narrow filter. In conclusion, we experimentally and theoretically demonstrated that relaxation oscillations can be suppressed in the short-cavity semiconductor laser with a narrow intracavity frequency filter. Additionally, on the basis of our analysis we expect the undamping of relaxation oscillations, and self-pulsations when the cavity mode is detuned from the filter peak frequency. The results might be useful for applications in data communications.Publisher PD

Hybrid photonic crystal lasers

Energy efficient Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) is the key to satisfying the future bandwidth requirements of datacentres. As the silicon photonics platform is regarded the only technology able to meet the required power and cost efficiency levels, the development of silicon photonics compatible narrow linewidth lasers is now crucial. We discuss the requirements for such laser systems and report the experimental demonstration of a compact uncooled external-cavity mW-class laser architecture with a tunable Si Photonic Crystal resonant reflector, suitable for direct Frequency Modulation.Postprin

Thermally stable external cavity laser based on silicon nitride periodic nanostructures

In this paper we demonstrate a thermally stable silicon nitride external cavity (SiN EC) laser based on a 250 μm sized Reflective Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (RSOA) butt-coupled to a series of Si 3 N 4 Bragg gratings acting as wavelength selective reflectors. The laser shows power outputs over 3 mW, a very low lasing threshold of 12 mA and with a typical Side-Mode Suppression Ratio of 45 dB. In this configuration a mode-hop free lasing regime over a range of 47 mA has been achieved (from 15 mA to 62 mA). Thermal stability of the lasing wavelength at temperatures up to 80°C is demonstrated. Further on, experimental results on a passive chip based on new 1D photonic crystal cavities are shown to have higher Q-Factors. This paves the way to avoiding thermal wavelength drifts and unlocks the possibility for these devices to be integrated in Dense WDM and optical-interconnect technologies, where transceivers must operate over a wide temperature range without active cooling

Wavelength stability in a hybrid photonic crystal laser through controlled nonlinear absorptive heating in the reflector

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

Frequency modulated external cavity laser with photonic crystal resonator and microheater

We demonstrate frequency modulation (FM) in an external cavity III-V/Silicon laser, comprising a Reflective Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (RSOA) and an SU8 polymer waveguide vertically coupled to a 2D Silicon Photonic Crystal (PhC) cavity. Laser FM was achieved by local heating of the PhC using a resistive element of Ni-Cr metal as a microheater to change the refractive index in the cavity hence changing the lasing frequency. Presented is a thermal study of the laser dynamics and observations of the shift in lasing frequency

Wavelength stability in a hybrid photonic crystal laser through controlled nonlinear absorptive heating in the reflector

This work was supported by the Science Foundation Ireland under Grants SFI12/RC/2276 and 16/ERCS/3838, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (doctoral grant EP/L505079/1 and equipment grant EP/L017008/1); European Research Council (ERC) (Starting Grant 337508); and Scottish Enterprise.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.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Lasing dynamics of photonic crystal reflector laser

We describe the lasing characteristics of a compact tunable laser source formed by the butt-coupling of a reflective indium phosphide optical amplifier to an SU8 waveguide coupled to few-mode photonic crystal reflector. The short cavity length ensured that only a single longitudinal mode of the device could overlap with each photonic crystal reflection peak.SCOPUS: cp.pinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe