Vertically emitting annular Bragg lasers using polymer epitaxial transfer

Fabrication of a planar semiconductor microcavity, composed of cylindrical Bragg reflectors surrounding a radial defect, is demonstrated. A versatile polymer bonding process is used to transfer active InGaAsP resonators to a low-index transfer substrate. Vertical emission of in-plane modes lasing at telecom wavelengths is observed under pulsed optical excitation with a submilliwatt threshold

Assessment of lithographic process variation effects in InGaAsP annular Bragg resonator lasers

Optical microresonators based on an annular geometry of radial Bragg reflectors have been designed and fabricated by electron-beam lithography, reactive ion etching, and an epitaxial transfer process. Unlike conventional ring resonators that are based on total internal reflection of light, the annular structure described here is designed to support optical modes with very small azimuthal propagation coefficient and correspondingly large free spectral range. The effect of lithographic process variation upon device performance is studied. Laser emission wavelength and threshold optical pump power are found to vary between similar devices given different electron doses during electron-beam lithography. As the resonance wavelength and quality factor of these resonators are very sensitive to environmental changes, these resonators make ideal active light sources that can be integrated into large arrays for gas and liquid sensing applications and are easily interrogated

Mid-Infrared nonlinear silicon photonics

Recently there has been a growing interest in mid-infrared (mid-IR) photonic technology with a wavelength of operation approximately from 2-14 mu m. Among several established mid-IR photonic platforms, silicon nanophotonic platform could potentially offer ultra-compact, and monolithically integrated mid-IR photonic devices and device arrays, which could have board impact in the mid-IR technology, such as molecular spectroscopy, and imaging. At room temperature, silicon has a bandgap similar to 1.12 eV resulting in vanishing two-photon absorption (TPA) for mid-IR wavelengths beyond 2.2 mu m, which, coupled with silicon's large nonlinear index of refraction and its strong waveguide optical confinement, enables efficient nonlinear processes in the mid-IR. By taking advantage of these nonlinear processes and judicious dispersion engineering in silicon waveguides, we have recently demonstrated a handful of silicon mid-IR nonlinear components, including optical parametric amplifiers (OPA), broadband sources, and a wavelength translator. Silicon nanophotonic waveguide's anomalous dispersion design, providing four-wave-mixing (FWM) phase-matching, has enabled the first demonstration of silicon mid-IR optical parametric amplifier (OPA) with a net off-chip gain exceeding 13 dB. In addition, reduction of propagation losses and balanced second and fourth order waveguide dispersion design led to an OPA with an extremely broadband gain spectrum from 1.9-2.5 mu m and > 50 dB parametric gain, upon which several novel silicon mid-IR light sources were built, including a mid-IR optical parametric oscillator, and a supercontinuum source. Finally, a mid-IR wavelength translation device, capable of translating signals near 2.4 mu m to the telecom-band near 1.6 mu m with simultaneous 19 dB gain, was demonstrated

Hybrid InGaAsP-InP Mach-Zehnder racetrack resonator for thermooptic switching and coupling control

An InGaAsP-InP optical switch geometry based on electrical control of waveguide-resonator coupling is demonstrated. Thermooptic tuning of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer integrated with a racetrack resonator is shown to result in switching with ON-OFF contrast up to 18.5 dB. The optical characteristics of this unique design enable a substantial reduction of the switching power, to a value of 26 mW in comparison with 40 mW for a conventional Mach-Zehnder interferometer switch. Modulation response measurements reveal a 3 dB bandwidth of 400 kHz and a rise time of 1.8 µs, comparing favorably with current state-of-the-art thermooptic switches

Annular Bragg resonators (ABR): the ideal tool for biochemical sensing, nonlinear optics, and cavity QED

Circular resonators are fundamentally interesting elements that are essential for research involving highly confined fields and strong photon-atom interactions such as cavity QED, as well as for practical applications in optical communication systems as and biochemical sensing. The important characteristics of a ring resonator are the Q-factor, the free spectral range (FSR) and the modal volume, where the last two are primarily determined by the resonator dimensions. The Total-Internal-Reflection (TIR) mechanism employed in "conventional" resonators couples between these characteristics and limits the ability to realize compact devices with large FSR, small modal volume and high Q. Recently, we proposed and analyzed a new class of a resonator in an annular geometry that is based on a single defect surrounded by radial Bragg reflectors on both sides. The radial Bragg confinement breaks the link between the characteristics of the mode and paves a new way for the realization of compact and low loss resonators. Such properties as well as the unique mode profile of the ABRs make this class of devices an excellent tool for ultra-sensitive biochemical detection as well as for studies in nonlinear optics and cavity QED

Lasing from a circular Bragg nanocavity with an ultra-small modal volume

We demonstrate single-mode lasing at telecommunication wavelengths from a circular nanocavity employing a radial Bragg reflector. Ultra-small modal volume and Sub milliwatt pump threshold level are observed for lasers with InGaAsP quantum well active membrane. The electromagnetic field is shown to be tightly confined within the 300nm central pillar of the cavity. The quality factors of the resonator modal fields are estimated to be on the order of a few thousands.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures Submitted to AP

Low Threshold Two-Dimensional Annular Bragg Lasers

Lasing at telecommunication wavelengths from annular resonators employing radial Bragg reflectors is demonstrated at room temperature under pulsed optical pumping. Sub milliwatt pump threshold levels are observed for resonators with 0.5-1.5 wavelengths wide defects of radii 7-8 mm. The quality factors of the resonator modal fields are estimated to be on the order of a few thousands. The electromagnetic field is shown to be guided by the defect. Good agreement is found between the measured and calculated spectrum.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Tunable Transmission Filters Based on Corrugated Sidewall Bragg Gratings in Polymer Waveguides

We fabricate different bandpass filters based on polymeric waveguide gratings by introducing phase shift defects and integrating with a 3 dB MMI coupler. We also use thermo-optic effects to dynamically tune the designed filte