Photonic integrated circuits based hybrid integration for wavelength beam combining

In this Letter, we have demonstrated wavelength beam combining (WBC) through hybrid integration of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) to significantly reduce the size, weight, and operation power of the laser combining system. The hybrid integration WBC includes III/V semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), which provide gain, and the silicon nitride PICs, which perform as the external cavity. We first show that the arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) -based hybrid laser defines the lasing wavelength through the AWG passband. We then demonstrate that the AWG successfully forms multiple channel lasers by combining SOAs in the hybrid platform.