Watt-class CMOS-compatible optical high power amplifier

High power amplifiers are critical components in optical systems spanning from long range optical sensing and optical communication systems to micromachining and medical surgery. Today, integrated photonics with its promise of large reductions in size, weight and cost cannot be used in these applications, due to the lack of on-chip high power amplifiers. Integrated devices severely lack in output power due to their small size which limits energy storage capacity. For the last two decades, large mode area (LMA) technology has played a disruptive role in fiber amplifiers enabling a dramatic increase of output power and energy by orders of magnitude. Thanks to the capability of LMA fiber to support significantly larger optical modes the energy storage and power handling capability has significantly increased. Therefore, an LMA device on an integrated platform can play a similar role in power and energy scaling of integrated devices. In this work, we demonstrate LMA waveguide-based CMOS compatible watt-class high power amplifiers with an on-chip output power reaching beyond ~ 1 W within a footprint of only ~ 4 mm2. The power achieved is comparable and even surpasses many fiber-based amplifiers. We believe this work has the potential to radically change the integrated photonics application landscape, allowing power levels previously unimaginable from an integrated device replacing much of today’s benchtop systems. Moreover, mass producibility, reduced size, weight and cost will enable yet unforeseen applications for laser technology

Watt-class CMOS-compatible power amplifier

Power amplifier is becoming a critical component for integrated photonics as the integrated devices try to carve out a niche in the world of real-world applications of photonics. That is because the signal generated from an integrated device severely lacks in power which is due mainly to the small size which, although gives size and weight advantage, limits the energy storage capacity of an integrated device due to the small volume, causing it to rely on its bench-top counterpart for signal amplification downstream. Therefore, an integrated high-power signal booster can play a major role by replacing these large solid-state and fiber-based benchtop systems. For decades, large mode area (LMA) technology has played a disruptive role by increasing the signal power and energy by orders of magnitude in the fiber-based lasers and amplifiers. Thanks to the capability of LMA fiber to support significantly larger optical modes the energy storage and handling capability has significantly increased. Such an LMA device on an integrated platform can play an important role for high power applications. In this work, we demonstrate LMA waveguide based CMOS compatible watt-class power amplifier with an on-chip output power reaching ~ 1W within a footprint of ~4mm2.The power achieved is comparable and even surpasses many fiber-based amplifiers. We believe this work opens up opportunities for integrated photonics to find real world application on-par with its benchtop counterpart

Towards On-Chip Ultrafast Pulse Amplification

Amplification of ultrafast optical signals is key to a large number of applications in photonics. While ultashort pulse amplification is well established in optical gain fibers, it is challenging to achieve in photonic-chip integrated waveguides. Recently, several integrated (quasi-)continuous-wave amplifiers have been demonstrated, based on rare-earth, heterogeneous semiconductor integration or nonlinear parametric gain [1]–[4]. On-chip amplification of ultrafast pulses, however, remains challenging due to the inherently small mode area and high-optical nonlinearity in integrated waveguides

Silicon photonics-based high-energy passively Q-switched laser

Chip-scale, high-energy optical pulse generation is becoming increasingly important as integrated optics expands into space and medical applications where miniaturization is needed. Q-switching of the laser cavity was historically the first technique to generate high-energy pulses, and typically such systems are in the realm of large bench-top solid-state lasers and fibre lasers, especially in the long wavelength range &gt;1.8 µm, thanks to their large energy storage capacity. However, in integrated photonics, the very property of tight mode confinement that enables a small form factor becomes an impediment to high-energy applications owing to small optical mode cross-sections. Here we demonstrate a high-energy silicon photonics-based passively Q-switched laser with a compact footprint using a rare-earth gain-based large-mode-area waveguide. We demonstrate high on-chip output pulse energies of &gt;150 nJ and 250 ns pulse duration in a single transverse fundamental mode in the retina-safe spectral region (1.9 µm), with a slope efficiency of ~40% in a footprint of ~9 mm2. The high-energy pulse generation demonstrated in this work is comparable to or in many cases exceeds that of Q-switched fibre lasers. This bodes well for field applications in medicine and space.</p

Broadband telecom to short-wave infrared spanning reconfigurable MZI filter

Broadband reconfigurable integrated MZI (Mach-Zehnder interferometer) filter is demonstrated with operation bandwidth spanning from the telecom band to the shortwave infrared window, which can easily be improved to span over an octave for various applications in integrated photonics

Silicon Nitride Apodized Chirped Gratings in the Short-wave Infrared Band

We report on apodized chirped Bragg gratings in a silicon nitride-on-insulator platform. Applications for this device include nonlinear photonics, specifically dispersion compensation in mode-locked lasers operating in the short-wave infrared wavelength band

Apodized Chirped Bragg Gratings in a Silicon Nitride-on-Insulator Platform at Short-Wave Infrared Wavelengths

Apodized chirped Bragg gratings (ACGs) can provide high reflectivity and controlled dispersion in mode-locked lasers on a silicon chip [8, 9]. Here, we report the design, fabrication, and characterization of silicon nitride ACGs operating in the short-wave infrared band

Toward mid-infrared nonlinear optics applications of silicon carbide microdisks engineered by lateral under-etching [Invited]

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Silicon-germanium integrated ring resonator with high Q-factor in the mid-infrared

International audienceWe demonstrate a high-Q ring resonators in the mid-infrared in a silicon-germanium chip-based platform. The achieved a loaded Q-factor of 90,000 for the side-coupled ring around 4.18µm operating wavelength

Mid-Infrared Supercontinuum Generation in a Silicon-Germanium Waveguide for Multi-Species Parallel Gas Spectroscopy

International audienceWe report efficient, broadband, and flat mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in a silicon-germanium on silicon waveguide. We employ the generated supercontinuum for a proof-ofprinciple demonstration of parallel spectroscopy of water vapor and carbon dioxide