High-Precision Wavelength Tuning of GeSn Nanobeam Lasers via Dynamically Controlled Strain Engineering

The technology to develop a large number of identical coherent light sources on an integrated photonics platform holds the key to the realization of scalable optical and quantum photonic circuits. Herein, a scalable technique is presented to produce identical on-chip lasers by dynamically controlled strain engineering. By using localized laser annealing that can control the strain in the laser gain medium, the emission wavelengths of several GeSn one-dimensional photonic crystal nanobeam lasers are precisely matched whose initial emission wavelengths are significantly varied. The method changes the GeSn crystal structure in a region far away from the gain medium by inducing Sn segregation in a dynamically controllable manner, enabling the emission wavelength tuning of more than 10 nm without degrading the laser emission properties such as intensity and linewidth. The authors believe that the work presents a new possibility to scale up the number of identical light sources for the realization of large-scale photonic-integrated circuits.