Fast and widely tunable III-V/SOI DFB and DBR lasers

Research Area: Heterogeneous integration technology for silicon photonics , Integrated lasers and LEDs , Silicon photonics for telecom, datacom and interconnect

Main Researcher: Sören Dhoore

The aim of this work is to realize widely tunable DFB and DBR lasers based on the heterogeneous integration of InP-compound epitaxial layer stacks on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. Tunable laser diodes can be made using electronic or thermal tuning. Electronic tuning exploits the free-carrier plasma dispersion effect, which allows very fast wavelength switching but results in linewidth broadening. Thermal tuning gives lower tuning speeds but allows to maintain a narrow laser linewidth over the entire tuning range. Our work covers both tuning approaches. Wide wavelength tuning is achieved through the Vernier effect. Coupling from the III-V to the underlying SOI waveguide is realised using adiabatic tapered coupling structures.

(Left) Schematic view of a III-V/SOI SG-DFB laser; (Right) Superimposed lasing spectra, as demonstrated in Dhoore et al., IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 2016.

Other people involved:

• Lianyan Li
• Gunther Roelkens
• Shahram Keyvaninia
• Jing Zhang
• Sören Dhoore
• Geert Morthier
• Dries Van Thourhout

Patents

• G. Roelkens, Augustinas Vizbaras, KristijonasVizbaras, Leva Simonyte, Tunable hybrid IIIV/IV laser sensor system-on-a-chip for real-time monitoring of a blood constituent concentration level

Publications

International Journals


1. S. Dhoore, G. Roelkens, G. Morthier, Fast wavelength-tunable lasers on silicon, IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics (invited), 25(6), p.1500908 doi:10.1109/JSTQE.2019.2912034 (2019)  .
2. S. Dhoore, A. Köninger, R. Meyer, G. Roelkens, G. Morthier, Electronically tunable distributed feedback (DFB) laser on silicon, Laser & Photonics Reviews, 13(3), p.1800287 doi:10.1002/lpor.201800287 (2019).
3. S. Dhoore, A. Rahim, G. Roelkens, G. Morthier, 12.5 Gbit/s discretely tunable InP-on-silicon filtered feedback laser with sub-nanosecond wavelength switching times, Optics Express, 26(7), p.8059-8068 doi:10.1364/OE.26.008059 (2018)  .
4. J. Zhang, B. Haq, J. O'Callaghan, A. Gocalinska, E. Pelucchi, A.J. Trindade, B. Corbett, G. Morthier, G. Roelkens, Transfer-printing-based integration of a III-V-on-silicon distributed feedback laser, Optics Express, 26(7), United States, p.8821-8830 doi:10.1364/oe.26.008821 (2018)  .
5. J. Zhang, Y. Li, S. Dhoore, G. Morthier, G. Roelkens, Unidirectional, widely-tunable and narrow-linewidth heterogeneously integrated III-V-on-silicon laser, Optics Express, 25(6), United States, p.7092-7100 doi:10.1364/OE.25.007092 (2017)  .
6. S. Dhoore, G. Roelkens, G. Morthier, III-V-on-silicon three-section DBR laser with over 12 nm continuous tuning range, Optics Letters, 42(6), p.1121-1124 doi:10.1364/OL.42.001121 (2017)  .
7. S. Dhoore, L. Li, A. Abbasi, G. Roelkens, G. Morthier, Demonstration of a discretely tunable III-V-on-silicon sampled grating DFB laser, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 28(21), p.2343-2346 doi:10.1109/LPT.2016.2593983 (2016)  .