Hertz-linewidth semiconductor lasers using CMOS-ready ultra-high-Q microresonators

By W. Jin, Qifan Yang, L. Chang, B. Shen, Heming Wang, M. A. Leal, Lue Wu, Maodong Gao, Avi Feshali, Mario Paniccia and 2 more. Nature Photonics, 2020

509 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Driven by narrow-linewidth bench-top lasers, coherent optical systems spanning optical communications, metrology and sensing provide unrivalled performance. To transfer these capabilities from the laboratory to the real world, a key missing ingredient is a mass-produced integrated laser with superior coherence. Here, we bridge conventional semiconductor lasers and coherent optical systems using CMOS-foundry-fabricated microresonators with a high Q factor of over 260 million and finesse over 42,000. A five-orders-of-magnitude noise reduction in the pump laser is demonstrated, enabling a frequency noise of 0.2 Hz2 Hz−1 to be achieved in an electrically pumped integrated laser, with a corresponding short-term linewidth of 1.2 Hz. Moreover, the same configuration is shown to relieve the dispersion requirements for microcomb generation that have handicapped certain nonlinear platforms. The simultaneous realization of this high Q factor, highly coherent lasers and frequency combs using foundry-based technologies paves the way for volume manufacturing of a wide range of coherent optical systems. Using CMOS-ready ultra-high-Q microresonators, a highly coherent electrically pumped integrated laser with frequency noise of 0.2 Hz2 Hz−1, corresponding to a short-term linewidth of 1.2 Hz, is demonstrated. The device configuration is also found to relieve the dispersion requirements for microcomb generation that have limited certain nonlinear platforms.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d4b9ac93fd19d67f761d0bba28d8cdfce18acde5

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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Citations in the corpus

Roadmapping the next generation of silicon photonics (2023, background): “However, the bandgaps required for optimal laser and modulator operation differ, significantly complicating the heterogeneous integration.”