Electro-optically tunable single-frequency lasing from neodymium-doped lithium niobate microresonators

Tunable light sources are a key enabling technology for many applications such as ranging, spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, digital imaging and interferometry. For miniaturized laser devices, whispering gallery resonator lasers are a well-suited platform, offering low thresholds and small linewidths, however, many realizations suffer from the lack of reliable tuning. Rare-earth ion-doped lithium niobate offers a way to solve this issue. Here we present a single-frequency laser based on a neodymium-doped lithium niobate whispering gallery mode resonator that is tuned via the linear electro-optic effect. Using a special geometry, we suppress higher-order transverse modes and hence ensure single-mode operation. With an applied voltage of just 68 V, we achieve a tuning range of 3.5 GHz. The lasing frequency can also be modulated with a triangular control signal. The freely running system provides a frequency and power stability of better than Delta v = 20 MHz and 6 %, respectively, for a 30-minute period. This concept is suitable for full integration with existing photonic platforms based on lithium niobate. Published by Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Automated summary

Tunable light sources are crucial for various applications, and this study presents a neodymium-doped single-frequency laser based on a lithium niobate whispering gallery mode resonator, achieving stable tuning range via the linear electro-optic effect. This concept is suitable for full integration with existing photonic platforms.