Mode locked and distributed feedback silicon evanescent lasers

Electrically pumped lasers that can be made on silicon and integrated with other components are important in order to take full advantage of the capabilities of silicon photonics. In this paper we review two specific types of hybrid silicon evanescent lasers that can fulfill these requirements. We discuss recent results of distributed feedback (DFB) lasers and mode locked lasers made on silicon using evanescent coupling to thin films of III-V material. Device designs and test results are discussed in detail. An integrated 1 Tb/s silicon based transmitter using 25 WDM channels each with a 40 Gb/s signal. [GRAPHICS] (C) 2009 by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim