Integrated silicon nitride organic hybrid DFB laser with inkjet printed gain medium

The provision of a coherent light source is a prerequisite for a variety of photonic integrated circuits. The integration of semiconductor laser diodes in disposable photonic devices in fields such as biosensing is, however, impeded by the competitive pricing in this application area. In this work, we demonstrate lasing of an alternative laser light source, namely an integrated hybrid organic solid-state distributed feedback laser for a silicon nitride photonic platform. The laser is optically pumped with a high power 450 nm laser diode and emits in the visible at 630 nm into a waveguide taper to reduce the cross-section to a single mode geometry. Inkjet printing of the organic gain medium enables a local, cost-effective, and flexible processing technology. The fabrication of the presented coherent light source is CMOS compatible and therefore highly interesting for co-integrated sensing platforms.