Mid-infrared semiconductor lasers in photonic integrated circuits are of considerable interest for a variety of industrial, environmental, and medical applications. However, photonic integration technologies in the mid-infrared lag far behind the near-infrared range. Here we present the monolithic integration of mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers with low-loss passive waveguides via butt-coupling. The passive waveguide losses are experimentally evaluated to be only 1.2 ± 0.3 dB/cm, with negligible butt-coupling losses. We demonstrate continuous-wave lasing at room temperature of these active-to-passive waveguide coupled devices. Moreover, we report a frequency comb operation paving the way toward on-chip, mid-infrared, dual-comb sensors.

Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have emerged as a promising integrated photonics platform for the optical communication, microwave photonics, and sensing applications. In recent years, rapid progress has been made on the development of low-loss TFLN waveguides, high-speed modulators, and various passive components. However, the integration of laser sources on the TFLN photonics platform is still one of the main hurdles in the path toward fully integrated TFLN PICs. Here, we present the heterogeneous integration of InP-based semiconductor lasers on a TFLN PIC. The III–V epitaxial layer stack is adhesively bonded to a TFLN waveguide circuit. In the laser device, the light is coupled from the III–V gain section to the TFLN waveguide via a multi-section spot size converter. A waveguide-coupled output power above 1 mW is achieved for the device operating at room temperature. This heterogeneous integration approach can also be used to realize on-chip photodetectors based on the same epitaxial layer stack and the same process flow, thereby enabling large-volume, low-cost manufacturing of fully integrated III–V-on-lithium niobate systems for next-generation high-capacity communication applications.

Lithium niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) has become a very promising integrated photonics platform. Here we present the heterogeneous integration of InP-based semiconductor lasers, LEDs and photodetectors on LNOI waveguide circuits.

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