Widely tunable, heterogeneously integrated quantum-dot O-band lasers on silicon

• DOI: 10.1364/prj.394726
• Publication Date: 2020-07-24T21:00:12Z
• Authors: Aditya Malik; Joel Guo; Minh A. Tran; Geza Kurczveil; Di Liang; John E. Bowers
• Keywords: 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; 02 engineering and technology; 7. Clean energy

Heterogeneously integrated lasers in the O-band are a key component in realizing low-power optical interconnects for data centers and high-performance computing. Quantum-dot-based materials have been particularly appealing for light generation due to their ultralow lasing thresholds, small linewidth enhancement factor, and low sensitivity to reflections. Here, we present widely tunable quantum-dot lasers heterogeneously integrated on silicon-on-insulator substrate. The tuning mechanism is based on Vernier dual-ring geometry, and a 47 nm tuning range with 52 dB side-mode suppression ratio is observed. These parameters show an increase to 52 nm and 58 dB, respectively, when an additional wavelength filter in the form of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer is added to the cavity. The Lorentzian linewidth of the lasers is measured as low as 5.3 kHz.