Effects of optical backscattering on silicon photonic hybrid laser performance

We present numerical results on the effect of backscattering at the junctions of double bus ring resonators in a Vernier ring hybrid laser design. The structure is comprised off a pair of III-V gain media evanescently coupled to a silicon on insulator racetrack comprised of a pair of double bus ring resonators coupled together through straight and flared waveguide sections. We show how the small backscattering at the ring resonator junctions has the effect of splitting and shifting the resonances off the clockwise and counter clockwise propagating modes thereby modifying the feedback spectrum from the ideal case. We then simulate results such as light current (LI) curves, relative intensity noise (RIN) and laser spectrum, and compare the laser performance including backscattering effects with the ideal case.