CMOS-Compatible Optical Phased Array Powered by a Monolithically-Integrated Erbium Laser

An advanced CMOS-compatible 300-<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{mm}$</tex-math></inline-formula>-wafer silicon-photonics platform is introduced that consists of a silicon layer with eight doping masks, two silicon-nitride layers, three metal and via layers, a dicing trench for smooth edge-coupled facets, and a gain-film trench that enables interaction between the gain material and waveguide layers. The platform was used to demonstrate an electrically-steerable integrated optical phased array powered by an on-chip erbium-doped laser. Lasing with a single-mode output, <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$30\,\text{dB}$</tex-math></inline-formula> side-mode-suppression ratio, and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{40 mW}$</tex-math></inline-formula> lasing threshold was shown, and one-dimensional beam steering with a <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{0.85}^\circ \times \text{0.20}^\circ$</tex-math></inline-formula> full-width at half-maximum and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{30}^\circ /\text{W}$</tex-math></inline-formula> electrical steering efficiency was demonstrated. This system represents the first demonstration of a rare-earth-doped laser monolithically-integrated with an active CMOS-compatible silicon-on-insulator photonics system.

[1]  Alexander Fang,et al.  Integrated Silicon Photonic Laser Sources for Telecom and Datacom , 2013, 2013 Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition and the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC).

[2]  Ali Hajimiri,et al.  A Nonuniform Sparse 2-D Large-FOV Optical Phased Array With a Low-Power PWM Drive , 2019, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[3]  Jie Sun,et al.  Ultra-narrow-linewidth Al2O3:Er3+ lasers with a wavelength-insensitive waveguide design on a wafer-scale silicon nitride platform. , 2017, Optics express.

[4]  L. A. Coldren,et al.  Two-Dimensional Optical Beam Steering With InP-Based Photonic Integrated Circuits , 2013, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[5]  Michael L Davenport,et al.  Arrayed narrow linewidth erbium-doped waveguide-distributed feedback lasers on an ultra-low-loss silicon-nitride platform. , 2013, Optics letters.

[6]  Matthew J. Byrd,et al.  CMOS-Compatible Optical Phased Arrays with Monolithically-Integrated Erbium Lasers , 2018, 2018 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO).

[7]  D. Blumenthal,et al.  Erbium-doped waveguide DBR and DFB laser arrays integrated within an ultra-low-loss Si3N4 platform. , 2014, Optics express.

[8]  Michael R. Watts,et al.  Near-Field-Focusing Integrated Optical Phased Arrays , 2018, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[9]  M. Pollnau,et al.  Reliable Low-Cost Fabrication of Low-Loss $\hbox{Al}_{2}\hbox{O} _{3}{:}\hbox{Er}^{3+}$ Waveguides With 5.4-dB Optical Gain , 2009, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[10]  Markus Pollnau,et al.  Energy-transfer-upconversion models, their applicability and breakdown in the presence of spectroscopically distinct ion classes: A case study in amorphous Al2O3:Er3+ , 2013 .

[11]  Purnawirman,et al.  Monolithically-integrated distributed feedback laser compatible with CMOS processing. , 2017, Optics express.

[12]  Tymon Barwicz,et al.  A Novel Approach to Photonic Packaging Leveraging Existing High-Throughput Microelectronic Facilities , 2016, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[13]  An Optical Frequency Synthesizer Using an Integrated Erbium Tunable Laser , 2019 .

[14]  M. Pollnau,et al.  Ultra-narrow-linewidth, single-frequency distributed feedback waveguide laser in Al2O3:Er3+ on silicon. , 2010, Optics letters.

[15]  Matthew J. Byrd,et al.  Long-Range LiDAR and Free-Space Data Communication With High-Performance Optical Phased Arrays , 2019, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[16]  L. Coldren,et al.  Hybrid III/V silicon photonic source with integrated 1D free-space beam steering. , 2012, Optics letters.

[17]  Jie Sun,et al.  Two-dimensional apodized silicon photonic phased arrays. , 2014, Optics letters.

[18]  Jie Sun,et al.  Self-pulsing in Erbium-doped fiber laser , 2015, 2015 Optoelectronics Global Conference (OGC).

[19]  Michael R. Watts,et al.  Reliable Integrated Photonic Light Sources Using Curved Al2O3:Er3+ Distributed Feedback Lasers , 2017, IEEE Photonics Journal.

[20]  Rajeev J Ram,et al.  Integrating photonics with silicon nanoelectronics for the next generation of systems on a chip , 2018, Nature.

[21]  Zhan Su,et al.  Athermal synchronization of laser source with WDM filter in a silicon photonics platform , 2017, Applied physics letters.

[22]  Dominic Goodwill,et al.  Monolithically Integrated Multilayer Silicon Nitride-on-Silicon Waveguide Platforms for 3-D Photonic Circuits and Devices , 2018, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[23]  M. Watts,et al.  High-power thulium lasers on a silicon photonics platform. , 2017, Optics letters.

[24]  Ranjeet Kumar,et al.  High-resolution aliasing-free optical beam steering , 2016 .

[25]  Michael R. Watts,et al.  Integrated-Phased-Array-Based Visible-Light Near-Eye Holographic Projector , 2019, 2019 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO).

[26]  Hossein Hashemi,et al.  A Monolithically Integrated Large-Scale Optical Phased Array in Silicon-on-Insulator CMOS , 2018, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[27]  E. Timurdogan,et al.  Monolithically integrated erbium-doped tunable laser on a CMOS-compatible silicon photonics platform. , 2018, Optics express.

[28]  David B. Cole,et al.  Coherent solid-state LIDAR with silicon photonic optical phased arrays. , 2017, Optics letters.

[29]  Luke Theogarajan,et al.  An optical-frequency synthesizer using integrated photonics , 2018, Nature.

[30]  E H Bernhardi,et al.  Highly efficient, low-threshold monolithic distributed-Bragg-reflector channel waveguide laser in Al2O3:Yb3+. , 2011, Optics letters.

[31]  G. Kurczveil,et al.  Integrated finely tunable microring laser on silicon , 2016, Nature Photonics.

[32]  Zhan Su,et al.  Broadband 2-µm emission on silicon chips: monolithically integrated Holmium lasers. , 2018, Optics express.

[33]  L. Coldren,et al.  Two-dimensional free-space beam steering with an optical phased array on silicon-on-insulator. , 2011, Optics express.

[34]  L. Coldren,et al.  Fully integrated hybrid silicon two dimensional beam scanner. , 2015, Optics express.

[35]  A. Biberman,et al.  An ultralow power athermal silicon modulator , 2014, Nature Communications.

[36]  Ali Hajimiri,et al.  Nanophotonic projection system. , 2015, Optics express.