Hpmm Huub Ambrosius

Integrated Tunable Quantum-Dot Laser for Optical Coherence Tomography in the 1.7

In this paper, we present the design and characterization of a monolithically integrated tunable laser for optical coherence tomography in medicine. This laser is the first monolithic photonic integrated circuit containing quantum-dot amplifiers, phase modulators, and passive components. We demonstrate electro-optical tuning capabilities over 60 nm between 1685 and 1745 nm, which is the largest tuning range demonstrated for an arrayed waveguide grating controlled tunable laser. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the active-passive integration technology designed for the 1550 nm telecom wavelength region can also be used in the 1600-1800 nm region. The tunable laser has a 0.11 nm effective linewidth and an approximately 0.1 mW output power. Scanning capabilities of the laser are demonstrated in a free space Michelson interferometer setup where the laser is scanned over the 60 nm in 4000 steps with a 500 Hz scan frequency. Switching between two wavelengths within this 60 nm range is demonstrated to be possible within 500 ns.

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Europe is making significant investments in development of generic photonic foundry platform infrastructures for InP-based and Silicon Photonic ICs. Here we present the present status for the InP-based JePPIX platform.

Wavelength Region

We report the experimental demonstration of two coupled laser cavities via self-imaging interference in a multimode waveguide. The coupling is optimized by considering images formed by two coherent phase-delayed signals at the input of a 3×3 splitter. As a result, the complex transfer coefficients of the coupling element can be chosen to increase the mode selectivity of the coupled system. A demonstration is given by the successful fabrication of a tunable laser with a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) up to 40 dB and a 6.5 nm tuning range. The laser delivers milliwatts of output power to a lensed fiber and is fully compatible with processes supporting vertically-etched sidewalls.

A generic foundry model for InP-based photonic ICs

A new photonic integration technique is presented, based on the use of an indium phosphide membrane on top of a silicon chip. This can provide electronic chips (CMOS) with an added optical layer (IMOS) for resolving the communication bottleneck. A major advantage of InP is the possibility to integrate passive and active components (SOAs, lasers) in a single membrane. In this paper we describe progress achieved in both the passive and active components. For the passive part of the circuit we succeeded to bring the propagation loss of our circuits close to the values obtained with silicon; we achieved propagation loss as low as 3.3 dB/cm through optimization of the lithography and the introduction of C60 (fullerene) in an electro resist. Further we report the smallest polarisation converter reported for membrane waveguides ( <10 μm) with low-loss (< 1 dB from 1520- 1550 nm), > 95% polarisation conversion efficiency over the whole C-band and tolerant fabrication. We also demonstrate an InP-membrane wavelength demultiplexer with a loss of 2.8 dB, a crosstalk level of better than 18 dB and a uniformity over the 8 channels of better than 1.2 dB. For the integration of active components we are testing a twin guide integration scheme. We present our design based on optical and electrical simulations and the fabrication techniques.

Coupled cavity laser based on anti-resonant imaging via multimode interference.

In this paper, we present the design, fabrication, and characterization of two monolithically InP-based integrated electro-optically tunable filters. The combination of these filters can be used to achieve a filter with a narrow passband and a large free spectral range. These filters are designed to be used in an integrated tunable laser source in the 1600-1800 nm wavelength region using active-passive integration technology. The fact that these filters worked successfully shows that this integration technology, originally designed to be used around 1550 nm wavelength, can also be used successfully in the 1600-1800 nm wavelength region without a large penalty in performance. The two filters, a high-resolution arrayed waveguide grating-type filters and a low-resolution multimode interferometer-tree-type filter are made tunable using 5 mm long electro-optic phase modulators in the arms of the waveguide arrays. Measurements show that these filters can be tuned over a wavelength range of more than 100 nm with an accuracy of 0.1 nm (1% of the free spectral range) for the high-resolution filter and an accuracy of 9 nm (4% of the free spectral range) for the low-resolution filter.

Photonic integration in Indium-Phosphide Membranes on Silicon (IMOS)

We present a 26 nm tunable Coupled Cavity Laser based on a novel interferometer and fabricated in a low-cost generic foundry process, with SMSR above 40 dB and fibre coupled power > 5mW.

InP-Based Monolithically Integrated Tunable Wavelength Filters in the 1.6–1.8

Integrated spot size converters (SSCs) are key components for efficient coupling between Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) and fibre-arrays. We report a compact SSC which is suitable for integration into dense arrays with a pitch down to 25 μm and compatible with our generic InP-based platform technology, which supports integration of SOAs and Electro Optical Modulators with a range of passive components. The small pitch supports coupling tens of on-chip optical waveguide ports to fiber arrays via a low-loss dielectric interposer chip. The density allows the design of a customized optical bus between the InP PIC and the interposer chip. The dielectric chip may simply expand to the pitch of a fiber array but also contain low-loss passive circuitry like delay-lines, high Q-filters and multiplexers. The latter enables the formation of a hybrid integration platform with our InP-based technology. Efficient coupling is obtained by adiabatically transforming the sub-micron modes of the InP waveguides to the 3 μm diameter mode of the interposer. We tested our SSCs by coupling to a lensed fibre with a mode field diameter of 2.5 μm. Coupling losses were found to be as low as 0.6 dB per fiber chip coupling for device lengths of a few 100 μm. We also measured the crosstalk from one input port to output ports adjacent to the targeted output port. We present simple design rules for reducing the crosstalk to neighbouring output ports below -50 dB. The quality and uniformity of the SSCs is demonstrated by fabrication of an 8 x 8 AWG demultiplexer between two SSC arrays placed at input and output ports. We measured an insertion loss between fibres of 4 dB for the central channel of the AWG, which is record low for an InP-based device.

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Coupling of two Fabry-Perot cavities via a 3x3 Multimode Interference Reflector is presented. We measure SMSR close to 40 dB and a tuning range of 7 nm for 1.2 mm cavities with 5% length difference.

m Wavelength Region for Tunable Laser Purposes

To make an electrically pumped photonic crystal membrane laser is a challenging task. One of the problems is how to avoid short circuiting between the p- and n-doped parts of the laser diode, when the membrane thickness is limited to 200–300nm. We propose to use the oxide of AlInAs to realize a current blocking function. In this way, based on submicron selective area re-growth, we aim for electrically injected photonic crystal lasers with high output power, small threshold currents and low power consumption. Here results are presented on the oxidation of AlInAs. The results show that it is feasible to use the oxide of AlInAs for current blocking in an InP-based membrane photonic crystal laser.

Widely tunable Coupled Cavity Laser based on a Michelson interferometer with doubled free spectral range

We experimentally demonstrate a monolithically integrated laser with built-in weak optical feedback, which shows broad regions of operation without relaxation-oscillation-induced instabilities. The side mode suppression is >40 dB for all values of the feedback phase. The measured linewidth varied from 740 KHz to 14 MHz, depending on the feedback phase value.