Electro-optic tuning of a single-frequency ultranarrow linewidth microdisk laser

Abstract. Single-frequency ultranarrow linewidth on-chip microlasers with a fast wavelength tunability play a game-changing role in a broad spectrum of applications ranging from coherent communication, light detection and ranging, to metrology and sensing. Design and fabrication of such light sources remain a challenge due to the difficulties in making a laser cavity that has an ultrahigh optical quality (Q) factor and supports only a single lasing frequency simultaneously. Here, we demonstrate a unique single-frequency ultranarrow linewidth lasing mechanism on an erbium ion-doped lithium niobate (LN) microdisk through simultaneous excitation of high-Q polygon modes at both pump and laser wavelengths. As the polygon modes are sparse within the optical gain bandwidth compared with the whispering gallery mode counterpart, while their Q factors (above 10 million) are even higher due to the significantly reduced scattering on their propagation paths, single-frequency lasing with a linewidth as narrow as 322 Hz is observed. The measured linewidth is three orders of magnitude narrower than the previous record in on-chip LN microlasers. Finally, enabled by the strong linear electro-optic effect of LN, real-time electro-optical tuning of the microlaser with a high tuning efficiency of ∼50  pm  /  100  V is demonstrated.

[1]  Jianping Chen,et al.  Single-frequency Single-resonator Lasers on Erbium Doped Lithium Niobate on Insulator , 2021, 2022 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO).

[2]  F. Gao,et al.  Integrated lithium niobate single-mode lasers by the Vernier effect , 2021, Science China Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy.

[3]  Jianping Chen,et al.  Single-frequency integrated laser on erbium-doped lithium niobate on insulator. , 2021, Optics letters.

[4]  Ya Cheng,et al.  On-chip ultra-narrow-linewidth single-mode microlaser on lithium niobate on insulator. , 2021, Optics letters.

[5]  Di Zhu,et al.  Integrated lithium niobate electro-optic modulators: when performance meets scalability , 2021, Optica.

[6]  Di Zhu,et al.  Integrated photonics on thin-film lithium niobate , 2021, Advances in Optics and Photonics.

[7]  Yuechen Jia,et al.  Ion-cut lithium niobate on insulator technology: Recent advances and perspectives , 2021 .

[8]  Y. Kong,et al.  On-chip erbium-doped lithium-niobate microring lasers , 2020, 2021 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO).

[9]  Ya Cheng,et al.  On-chip tunable microdisk laser fabricated on Er3+-doped lithium niobate on insulator. , 2020, Optics letters.

[10]  Shi-ning Zhu,et al.  Ultrabright Multiplexed Energy-Time-Entangled Photon Generation from Lithium Niobate on Insulator Chip , 2020, 2012.06092.

[11]  Jingjun Xu,et al.  Advances in on-chip photonic devices based on lithium niobate on insulator , 2020, Photonics Research.

[12]  H. Tang,et al.  Near-octave lithium niobate soliton microcomb , 2020 .

[13]  Yuping Chen,et al.  On-chip erbium-doped lithium niobate microcavity laser , 2020, Science China Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy.

[14]  Siyuan Yu,et al.  High-performance coherent optical modulators based on thin-film lithium niobate platform , 2020, Nature Communications.

[15]  Ya Cheng,et al.  Polygon Coherent Modes in a Weakly Perturbed Whispering Gallery Microresonator for Efficient Second Harmonic, Optomechanical, and Frequency Comb Generations. , 2020, Physical review letters.

[16]  Yifang Qi,et al.  Integrated lithium niobate photonics , 2020, Nanophotonics.

[17]  Tzyy-Jiann Wang,et al.  On-Chip Optical Microresonators With High Electro-Optic Tuning Efficiency , 2020, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[18]  Y. Kong,et al.  Recent Progress in Lithium Niobate: Optical Damage, Defect Simulation, and On‐Chip Devices , 2019, Advanced materials.

[19]  Ya Cheng,et al.  Broadband Quasi-Phase-Matched Harmonic Generation in an On-Chip Monocrystalline Lithium Niobate Microdisk Resonator. , 2019, Physical Review Letters.

[20]  Marko Loncar,et al.  Monolithic lithium niobate photonic circuits for Kerr frequency comb generation and modulation , 2018, Nature Communications.

[21]  Qiang Lin,et al.  A self-starting bi-chromatic LiNbO3 soliton microcomb , 2018, 1812.09610.

[22]  Ya Cheng,et al.  Lithium niobate micro-disk resonators of quality factors above 107. , 2018, Optics letters.

[23]  Qiang Lin,et al.  Highly tunable efficient second-harmonic generation in a lithium niobate nanophotonic waveguide , 2018, Optica.

[24]  Arnan Mitchell,et al.  Status and Potential of Lithium Niobate on Insulator (LNOI) for Photonic Integrated Circuits , 2018 .

[25]  Q. Lin,et al.  Fast response of photorefraction in lithium niobate microresonators. , 2017, Optics letters.

[26]  F. Gao,et al.  Thermo-optic effects in on-chip lithium niobate microdisk resonators. , 2016, Optics express.

[27]  Y. Wang,et al.  Single-mode laser by parity-time symmetry breaking , 2014, Science.

[28]  Xuan-Quang Du,et al.  Generalized full-vector multi-mode matching analysis of whispering gallery microcavities. , 2014, Optics express.

[29]  Xuan-Quang Du,et al.  Full-vectorial whispering-gallery-mode cavity analysis. , 2013, Optics express.

[30]  S. Ozdemir,et al.  Detecting single viruses and nanoparticles using whispering gallery microlasers. , 2011, Nature nanotechnology.

[31]  T. Carmon,et al.  A Narrow-Linewidth On-Chip Toroid Raman Laser , 2011, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[32]  B. Sturman,et al.  Optical cleaning of congruent lithium niobate crystals , 2009 .

[33]  Albert Polman,et al.  On-chip green silica upconversion microlaser. , 2009, Optics letters.

[34]  P. Yeh,et al.  Photonics : optical electronics in modern communications , 2006 .

[35]  M. Paniccia,et al.  A continuous-wave Raman silicon laser , 2005, Nature.

[36]  D. Nikogosyan,et al.  Nonlinear Optical Crystals: A Complete Survey , 2005 .

[37]  K. Vahala.  Optical microcavities , 2003, Nature.

[38]  Dennis Derickson,et al.  Fiber optic test and measurement , 1998 .

[39]  Goldberg,et al.  Theory of the fundamental laser linewidth. , 1991, Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

[40]  C. Henry.  Theory of the linewidth of semiconductor lasers , 1982 .

[41]  A. Schawlow,et al.  Infrared and optical masers , 1958 .