Integrating a Nanowire Laser in an on-Chip Photonic Waveguide

We report a simple and facile integration strategy of a laser source in passive photonic integrated circuits (PICs) by deterministically embedding semiconductor nanowires (NWs) in waveguides. InP NWs laid on a SiN slab are buried by a polymer layer which also acts as an electron-beam resist. With electron-beam lithography, hybrid polymer-SiN waveguides are formed with precisely embedded NWs. The lasing behavior of the waveguide-embedded NWs is confirmed, and more importantly, the NW lasing mode couples into the hybrid waveguide and forms an in-plane guiding mode. Multiple waveguide-embedded NW lasers are further integrated in complex photonic structures to illustrate that the waveguiding mode supplied by the NW lasers could be manipulated for onchip signal processing, including power splitting and wavelength-division multiplexing. This integration strategy of an on-chip laser is applicable to other PIC platforms, such as silicon and lithium niobate, and the top cladding layer could be changed by depositing SiN or SiO2, promising its CMOS compatibility.

Automated summary

This article reports a simple and facile integration strategy of a laser source in passive photonic integrated circuits using semiconductor nanowires embedded in waveguides. The method is applicable to other PIC platforms and promises CMOS compatibility.