Physics

Laser linewidth

Laser

Resonator

Optics

Semiconductor laser theory

Semiconductor

Materials science

Photonics

Photonic integrated circuit

Silicon

Tunable laser

Optoelectronics

Wavelength

IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics

This paper presents recent results on widely-tunable narrow-linewidth semiconductor lasers using a ring-resonator based mirror as the extended cavity. Two generations of lasers on the heterogeneous Si/InP photonic platform are presented. The first-generation lasers, with a total footprint smaller than 0.81 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , showed an intrinsic linewidth of ~2 kHz over a 40 nm wavelength tuning range across C+L bands. The second-generation lasers using ultra-low loss silicon waveguides and a novel cavity design achieved an intrinsic linewidth below 220 Hz. The lasers also possess an ultrawide wavelength tuning range of 110 nm across three optical communication bands (S+C+L). These are records among all fully integrated semiconductor lasers reported in the literature.

Ring-Resonator Based Widely-Tunable Narrow-Linewidth Si/InP Integrated Lasers