1.55 μm hybrid waveguide laser made by ion-exchange and wafer bonding

Abstract

Distributed Feed Back (DFB) lasers working in the third telecom window are essential for optical communications, eyesafe sensors and lab-on-chip devices. Glass integrated optics technology allows realizing such devices by using rareearth doped substrates. Despite their good output power and spectral characteristic, DFB lasers still present some reliability issues concerning the Bragg grating protection. Moreover Erbium doped glasses are not compatible with the realization of passive optical functions. In order to solve the DFB lasers reliability issues and to ensure a monolithic integration between active and passive functions, we propose an hybrid-device architecture based on ion-exchange technology and wafer bonding. The Ag + /Na + ion-exchange in the silicate glass wafer is used to realize the passive functions and the lateral confinement of the electromagnetic field. Through a second ion exchange step, a slab waveguide is made on the Erbium-Ytterbium doped glass wafer. The Bragg grating is processed on the passive substrate and the two glasses are bonded. The potential of this structure has been demonstrated through the realization of a DFB hybrid laser with a fully encapsulated Bragg grating.

Ion-exchange in Glasses and Crystals: from Theory to Applications

“…Besides the aforementioned thermal post-processes, other annealing techniques involve the use of continuous [102,[165][166][167] and/or pulsed lasers [98,101,[168][169][170][171] working at different wavelengths of the spectrum (from X-ray to ultraviolet (UV) and visible (VIS) regions up to infrared (IR) ones) and able to effectively reduce the noble metal ions in metal NPs. In this case, the mechanism of nanoparticle formation depends on the power of the laser source at the surface of the ion-exchanged specimen.…”

“…(b) Demonstration and characterization of rare-earth doped ion-exchanged waveguide amplifiers and frequency converters [140,. (c) Demonstration and characterization of rare-earth doped ion-exchanged waveguide lasers [60,61,147,[166][167][168][169].…”

Multilayer Hybrid Waveguide Amplifier for Three-Dimension Photonic Integrated Circuit

“…Hybrid waveguide composed of optical glass and active Er 3+ doped phosphate glass has been reported [11]- [13]. However, it was still one-material system.…”