Hybrid integrated external cavity laser with a 172-nm tuning range

Chip-scale lasers with a wide tunable range and a narrow linewidth have rich applications in optical communications, sensing, and light detection and ranging systems. External cavity lasers (ECLs) have the advantage of a wide tuning range and a narrow linewidth compared with their counterparts such as distributed feedback lasers and distributed Bragg reflector lasers because the passive filter separated from the gain section can be widely tuned and the low-loss external cavity extends the photon lifetime. However, so far, the tuning range achieved by the chip-scale ECLs is in the range of 80-120 nm, smaller than that of the bulk free-space ECL (typically > 160 nm). The bottleneck in reaching an ultrabroad tuning range for chip-scale ECLs lies in the unsuppressed side modes of the external cavity. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid-integrated ECL consisting of a broadband III-V reflective semiconductor optical amplifier and a low-loss Si3N4 wavelength-selective reflector. A record 172-nm lasing wavelength tuning range together with a more than 40 dB side-mode suppression ratio is achieved beyond the free spectral range of the Vernier ring filter due to the enhanced lasing mode selection from a tunable Sagnac loop reflector. The Si3N4 platform enables a low-loss external cavity, facilitating laser linewidth reduction below 4 kHz over the full tuning range. The on-chip output power reaches 26.7 mW at a wavelength of 1550 nm. (C) 2022 Author(s).

Automated summary

This article introduces a hybrid-integrated external cavity laser, which achieves a tunable range of 172 nm and a side-mode suppression ratio of over 40 dB using a broadband reflective semiconductor optical amplifier and a low-loss Si3N4 wavelength-selective reflector. The Si3N4 platform enables a low-loss external cavity, reducing the laser linewidth to below 4 kHz over the full tuning range.