High power, high SMSR and wide tuning range silicon micro-ring tunable laser

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Integrated Optics
• Semiconductor Lasers

Background:

• External cavity tunable lasers are crucial for optical communications.
• Silicon photonics offers a scalable platform for integrated optical devices.
• Thermal crosstalk can limit the performance of micro-ring resonator-based devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a novel external cavity tunable laser using a silicon hybrid micro-ring resonator.
• To investigate the effectiveness of heat isolate grooves in mitigating thermal crosstalk.
• To characterize the laser's performance in terms of output power, linewidth, tuning range, and side mode suppression ratio.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a silicon hybrid micro-ring resonator.
• Integration of heat isolate grooves around the micro-ring resonators.
• Experimental characterization of the tunable laser's optical properties.

Main Results:

• Achieved an output power of 15.5 dBm.
• Demonstrated a laser linewidth below 130 kHz.
• Obtained a tuning range exceeding 57 nm in the C-band.
• Reported a side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of 60 dB.

Conclusions:

• The silicon hybrid micro-ring resonator with heat isolate grooves is a viable architecture for high-performance tunable lasers.
• Effective thermal crosstalk mitigation was achieved.
• The device shows significant potential for applications in optical sensing and telecommunications.